There are always going to be debates about who came up with an idea as transformative to Apple’s business as the iTunes and the iPod, but here’s one you may not have heard before: Richard Branson.
In a new interview with the i paper, the Virgin head honcho claims the concept behind Apple’s turnaround duo of inventions was originally made by him as a joke — only for Steve Jobs to take it seriously, and later go on to put it into action.
“On April Fool’s Day 1986 I gave an interview to a big-name music publication and told them that Virgin had been secretly developing a ‘Music Box’, on which we had stored every music track we could lay our hands on, and from which music lovers would, for a small fee, be able to download any individual song or album they wanted,” Branson says.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
11 responses to “Richard Branson claims to have invented iPod and iTunes as April Fool’s joke”
Even if it is true, saying so just opens you up to a lot of ridicule. Just ask Al Gore.
All this time, I thought it was because some Japanese company wanted to sell their micro hard drive.
It’s like when Paul McCartney gave Michael Jackson advice about buying music catalogs.
1000 likes lol
Branson should immediately be installed as the focus of all Apple fan’s attention. Apple-ites of the world bow to you, Branson! You are the one! Zzzz (is this a dream or a nightmare?)
I actually remember this… In the UK there used to be a Saturday morning kids show called Going Live and one April fools day (1986 sounds about right) they did a segment about this “music box” – it was a tiny device about the size of an iPod nano and it was controlled by voice (like Siri). They got viewers to call in to the show to test it out by telling it what track to play and blew people’s minds with it apparently working. There were dozens of celebrities in on the gag saying they had been involved in its development and yes I believe Richard Branson was one of them. If you guys could obtain a copy of this from the BBC it would be awesome!
Didn’t he also invent the internet?
Uh no, I actually don’t believe him.
This one time Richard Branson said that Virgin was about to come up with a mountain that spits fire and then Mother Nature took it too seriously and bam! Volcanoes, man.
Didn’t he invent Steve Jobs himself? Boy, am I disappointed!
This could easily be verified, so why would it be hard to believe if if happened? Making fun of Richard Branson for talking about something occurring before iTunes and iPods were a reality that very much resembles said things and that was witnessed or reported by others at the time seems pointless and idiotic. If it happened, it happened and no amount of you wishing it weren’t so will make it go away or erase it.