If you're scanning through the Op-Ed section of today's Wall Street Journal, you'll see a piece on Steve Jobs written by Michael S. Malone, often called the country's first daily high-tech reporter. It's part profile, part case study and totally overboard. This kind of Jobs worship is usually the work of Newsweek's Steve Levy or many of the incalculable number of Apple-loving tech writers/bloggers. "This is the thanks," begins the article, "Steve Jobs gets for saving an entire industry." (I'm sorry....when was the industry saved? I must have missed the memos about EMI's incredible financial health, Warner Music Group's hiring binge and Sony BMG's overflowing coffers. Things could be worse, I suppose, but nobody has been saved just yet.)

Aside from the idolatry, most of the op-ed is decent enough (though common knowledge to many). There are a few drawbacks. Malone's criticism of the industry's anti-P2P strategy is flawed given his awe of pay-for-download store iTunes, he's stretching when he wrote that in 2003 the music industry "was on the brink of seeing its entire revenue model destroyed by the black market," and he gives too little credit to the iPod and too much to iTunes. At the end, Malone offers keen foresight:

"Is this a turning point in the story of digital music? Will the other Big Three follow (EMI's decision to offer DRM-free downloads)? One can only hope so. The music moguls trusted Steve Jobs once and he saved them. It's time for them to trust him again.

If they don't, they shouldn't be surprised by what comes next. Having squandered the trust of its consumers, the music industry is rapidly losing the loyalty of its content providers as well. Artists have been the big losers in all of this, and by necessity they've had to learn a little about marketing and distribution. Software is software, even if it's got a beat -- so what's to keep Steve Jobs and Apple from going into the music business itself?

Developing and managing musicians is not related to any of Apple's core competencies, so I would not be surprised if Apple stuck with selling hardware and a (relatively) few downloads and left the sausage making to others.