Steve Jobs' master plan to draw a generation raised on stolen music into the iTunes store
Of the 5,364 items in my iTunes music library, 143 are songs I purchased on Apple's (AAPL) iTunes store. The vast majority were ripped from my old CD collection. A few were obtained by other means.
My children have even larger digital music collections that they store on iTunes and play on their Apple devices. I venture to guess that like most kids their age, the vast majority of their music came, directly or via friends, from pirate sites. When I offer to gift them iTunes music, they tell me thanks, but no thanks. It's not worth the hassle.
As I understand it, the iCloud service Steve Jobs introduced Monday -- especially the feature called iTunes Match -- is a bid to change that dynamic.