There's a great expression that is especially useful when dealing with big companies: "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately described by incompetency." [1]
While it's tempting to think that Jobs was pulling all the strings, the reality is that Apple is a large company where legal departments take forever, internal debate occur, and communication is slow.
It sucks that Jobs made that $40 statement without someone vetting (or caring) that they were negotiating with CDBaby and that's their price. It sucks that Apple did not communicate better about the reason for the delay. But doing enterprise deals is nothing like working with an individual, and in that context I wouldn't simply assume that Apple/Jobs was being spiteful.
Look Jobs could be the way he is because he has things that people want (I don't mean Apple products so much as what someone like Jobs is able to do for someone economically).
If he didn't have those things nobody would pay attention to him or care about him other than the base level that anyone cares about anyone day to day. He knows that. Same as some pretty girls know why guys are interested in them. (Or rich guys hopefully know why girls are interested in them). It's a symbiotic relationship.
Read Jobs's biography (or talk to any of us who worked with him) and decide for yourself 1) whose personal decisions were behind the actions of Apple down to a "micromanaged" level of detail, and 2) whether that guy was better described as malicious or incompetent.
While it's tempting to think that Jobs was pulling all the strings, the reality is that Apple is a large company where legal departments take forever, internal debate occur, and communication is slow.
It sucks that Jobs made that $40 statement without someone vetting (or caring) that they were negotiating with CDBaby and that's their price. It sucks that Apple did not communicate better about the reason for the delay. But doing enterprise deals is nothing like working with an individual, and in that context I wouldn't simply assume that Apple/Jobs was being spiteful.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_razor