I think a better question is why hasn't Apple created the modern-day replacement for the record label of olde? You know, doing stuff to increase visibility of artists and pump up the various scenes than they currently do with their current "you upload, we take a cut" mode. Like having local iTunes concerts, performed by artists selling on iTunes. Free admission if you buy a $20 iTunes card. Or putting on impromptu gigs at various venues like coffee houses, dive bars, or local music clubs to generate some buzz around talent. Get Woz involved and resurrect the Us Festival under the iTunes brand, with indie artists from all sorts of genres. Music is about so much more than pumping sound into your ears.

I agree with the "changing of the guard" sentiment, but I think it better to disrupt from the outside, rather than prop up the old guard for a while longer. There's on old saying "once a pickle, never a cucumber". I just don't believe the industry can be un-pickled.