In Which They Build an iTunes for Open Source Content...

But there are "iTunes for Open Source Content"s, at least two of them, and a barrel full of failed projects gone before them:

Songbird: http://www.getsongbird.com/

Miro: http://www.getmiro.com/

The issue isn't the software, it's the marketplace usage and the penetration.

Everyone uses iTunes because that's where all the content is, but all the content got there because people couldn't use their iPod (and later iPhone) without it. The hardware took the beachhead.

Nothing stops anyone from using Songbird or Miro today, except there's no good reason to.

You'd need a lot of content providers to not just promote one of them, but to actually pull their content from iTunes and offer it exclusively through the new app. Or, to have a compelling iPod/iPhone alternative piece of hardware to drive said adoption.

I don't know that NPR and the BBC and a bunch of amateur podcasts doing that would be enough, or if they'd just die quietly.