Apple demonstrated with music that when you align a value chain within a turbulent industry you can create a Lightnet. Especially when competitors and industry players resist abandoning an older less efficient value chain. In absence of a commercially viable alternative, Darknets arise to meet demand. Its a competition of experiences.
Recovering from an era of downloading isn't the issue. This isn't a social crime, a moral issue and there isn't a generation that has to unlearn. This is arbitrage. Supply failing to meet demand. In absence of a quality service for unbundled goods, the market unbundled, song-by-song, through sharing.
iTunes is selling a modest 500,000 songs per week, but has established a new revenue model with diverse buying patterns. The major criticism of the iTunes store, poor selection, will be addressed by incrementally enhancing scale as the model continues to prove itself. Before scaling, limiting selection allows them to create new categories such as Exclusives.
With iPods, perhaps Andrew Anker is right that Apple is leveraging its ability to create end-to-end consumer experiences to become an appliance vendor.
Apple has done all this as a proprietary system and you would expect greater criticism for not being open. But what they have done is to co-exist with the open alternative. If the regulatory environment was less restrictive they would embrace it, and over time they will.
The concept of a Proprietor arose when the government couldn't pay for the upkeep of churches. Monks and laymen stepped in to found new structures and recieved the benefits not only of the property, but its administration. For now, Apple is a just Proprietor, jus spoli, entitled to the spoils.
