It will take some time to digest eaxctly what the announcements that Steve Jobs made yesterday mean to artists and the music industry, but here are a few initial reactions:

• It amazes me just how far in front of the curve Apple always is.  And yet on closer examination, what they announce as revolutionary is almost always simply at the front edge of evolutionary.  The music industry could learn from this.

• With its new Ping social network Apple is continuing to expand its closed ecosystem. That ticks me off enough to not sign up. And yet Ping presents a huge opportunity for music discovery ... and for music marketing.
• Steve Jobs failed to mention it, but the new iTunes concert info is "powered" by Live Nation. Smart move for both, but its not great news for those fans and promoters who want nothing to do with giving info to the concert giant.
• Virtually every Apple music announcement that you saw yesterday was set-up for a cloud based iTunes music service.