It seems like I'm a little slow today, because I don't get it. I can buy DRM-free music from Amazon and play it on my iPod, so what's the problem? How is the music industry stopping people from buying iPods and forcing them to buy devices with DRM?
The actual issue is that the music industry realizes how powerful the iTunes Store has become and they feel threatened, so they'll give anyone a deal who says they'll compete with Apple.
Amazon can't sell DRM'ed mp3s with any degree of success because they won't play on ipods. Apparently they figure if they can break the ITMS stranglehold they'll be able to offer music only in their DRM & hopefully further restrict or shut out the ipod. Classic content owner's mistake of overvaluing the content, and undervaluing the platform.