I still say that the ‘Big Four’ are marketing music as if it were a luxury item, instead of a commodity. They want complete control over what forms the music is sold in, what channels it is distributed via, and higher prices.

I think dropping DRM would cut into Apple’s market share a bit, but it would expand the market by enough to more than make up for the loss in share. Jobs knows this. But in this case, it appears that’s what’s best for Apple, is also best for the industry as a whole.

Of course we’re excited about Steve Jobs saying that he’d love to offer all of us free music on iTunes, but the record labels have his hands tied with their DRM schemes. (All kinds of reports on that here and here.)…