Late last night, on March 7, Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose tweeted something with zero context. (Who among us?) But the more I think about what he tweeted, the more questions I have.
“Tim Cook is the Donald Trump of the music industry,” Rose wrote. Tim Cook is the Donald Trump of the music industry.
…Tim Cook? Is the Donald Trump… of the music industry?
Here’s the tweet.
Tim Cook is the Donald Trump of the music industry.
— Axl Rose (@axlrose) March 8, 2018
OK, so what do we know about Donald Trump? He is the president of the United States. He allegedly had an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels and his lawyer allegedly paid her not to talk about it (she’s now suing him for it). Most Americans think he’s wildly racist. He has publicly stated that trade wars are good (many disagree).
Now, all these things paint a sordid state of affairs (especially the part where he is president of the United States), but how many of these traits can be accurately applied to Tim Cook and his work at Apple — specifically his role at Apple Music, which Axl Rose seems to be alluding to here?
As far as we can tell, none of them! Tim Cook is not the head of Apple Music; that’s always been Jimmy Iovine, who was previously one of the founders of Beats Electronics, which Apple acquired in 2014. (Apple would launch Apple Music in 2015, nearly 10 years after Spotify entered the US, but the service has been steadily gaining ground against its biggest competitor ever since.)
Back to Tim Cook: I’m pretty sure most people don’t think Tim Cook is racist, or that he is involved in a legal battle with Stormy Daniels. I’m not sure of Tim Cook’s stance on trade wars.
Some people may argue that Donald Trump is ruining America. I would agree with those people, but Tim Cook is arguably not doing the same for the music industry. If Axl thinks so, I’d like to hear why.