I would challenge his statement that the music studios would yank music off of iTunes in a few weeks if FairPlay was cracked. First of all, while I am unsure about FairPlay, the PlaysForSure DRM is and remains cracked. However, PlaysForSure providers are still in business, still offering all-you-can-eat music models. The big four are still doing business with MSFT via the Zune Marketplace. And I believe FairPlay is actually circumventable with homemade tools that are out there in the Internet’s wild.

All that said, it doesn’t detract from Jobs core message. DRM doesn’t work. DRM prevents interoperability (I don’t buy the locking argument because another blog concluded very reasonably that perhaps 3% of all music on people’s devices are DRM). DRM is generally an unwinnable strategy given enough time and effort. It is not logical to disbelieve the message or its conclusion simply because of the speaker (who you would only disbelieve in the throes of cynicism).

Apple has been spending years now building leverage. It’s leverage the studios would like to break (otherwise they wouldn’t be pushing so hard for a solid #2 to emerge). Do they have enough leverage to simply say, “Hey guys, when the contracts are up, we’re dropping DRM, take it or leave it.” Maybe. After all, they’d still sell iPods and people would still rip CDs or just steal the music as they do now. Really, there’d be little change in the business model, which is to sell devices, not music.