The Register reports today that Steve Jobs admits that the iTunes is really a loss leader for Apple in a fascinating article. (Just in case you click through and notice the date, remember that it’s in European format — 07/11/2003 is 7 November, not July 11th.) So even though Apple made a big deal about on-line music purchases being the future of digital music, it turns out that all of the money goes to right back to the recording industry. Apple is at best breaking even, likely even losing money, all in the hopes of selling iPods.

The rest of the article is kind of a fun look at why Apple might be doing this (unclear at best) and a pitch for compulsory licenses (talked about earlier in my blog).