Apple is in a pretty unique situation right now. Steve Jobs has now publicly said that he wants the record companies to throw away DRM.

Would he have done that five years ago? Probably not. DRM is what made the iTunes Store what it is today. Without DRM, the iTunes Store would probably not exist. And I do mean without DRM anywhere.

Only huge influential companies could get the record labels to sell online, and one of those companies were Apple. And only because Apple sold the whole widgets (Store-OS-Music player) could Apple provide a uniform solution. After the first joined, most others did as well.

This had the pleasant side-effect of lock-in for the iTunes Store to the iPod. There was only one player that could play music you bought from the iTunes Store. It's not secret that the lockin to iPod made the iTunes Store what it is, and subsequently it's no secret that the iTunes Store helps sell iPods as well.

While we all frown upon lock-ins, I can't imagine the record labels agreeing to do anything without it.

So why is Steve Jobs now saying that they should remove DRM? Is he insane? That means that music bought from the iTunes Store could be played on other music players! It also means that music from other online music stores could be played on the iPod!

Well, of course he can say this *now*, when Apple is the market leader. People won't stop buying iPods nor will they stop using the iTunes Store. Apple can play the humble one here, saying that DRM is evil and we should all get rid of it. It's just that five years ago, Apple would have never said this, since it was their high-road to success.