With the iTunes Store, Apple has partnered with a handful of media companies for recordings and video. And those partners are deathly afraid of online distribution. Developers, on the other hand, will number in the thousands (or much more.) We also embrace online distribution wholeheartedly.

There is a problem here, though. He is making an assumption that Apple has only partnered with a handful of media companies to sell products in the iTunes Store—specifically, the big 5 major labels and movie studios. This actually isn't the case. Apple has partnered with thousands of (or much more) media companies who represent a great many independent artists who's products are for sale in the iTunes Store. Some of these media companies have very artist centric agreements with their clients.

While it's likely that the companies that do the most volume in the iTunes Store are deathly afraid of online distribution, the actual number of independent media partners with products for sale in the iTunes store are likely not afraid of online distribution. Besides your Radio Heads, and Wilcos (who obviously don't have this fear), most of my friend's bands have things for sale in the iTunes store, and more than a few of them personally seed the peer to peer file sharing networks with their material. I doubt the same could be said for software developers.

Different Differences

Obviously there are some big differences between the artist and developer business models. File sharing is good for mosts artists, since we are in the business of selling products as well as services. A large many of us embrace it. Software developers, for the most part, primarily sell products. They actually fit more closely with the big media conglomerate model.

One difference between the iTunes Store and the App Store is that Apple is directly partnering with developers without going through a middle man. Also, the $99 cost to get into the App Store doesn't exist for the iTunes Store, however, you do need a partner with a little clout. Getting into the iTunes Store through CD baby, for instance, has it's limitations. Your band doesn't show up in the browse interface, nor does it appear in the search suggestions in the search field. From what it sounds like, all developers will share equal representation in the App Store.

I highly recommend reading the running furbo coverage of the App Store. Despite my slight disagreement, the App Store is very uncharted territory, and a completely exciting turn of events in our connected-all-the-time lives.