Is Apple’s success causing labels to go DRM-free?

The internets are abuzz with the news that EMI is going to release a Norah Jones single for sale in the MP3 format without DRM. Feel free to gasp audibly. A major label is digitally releasing a new single from a major artist without copy protection.
Why are the labels experimenting with unprotected files?
It probably has to do with Apple’s dominance of the digital music market. The iPod acounts for the vast majority of the digital audio players. Apple’s Fairplay DRM software is proprietary and not licensed to other digital music vendors. So, the only source for DRM-protected files that will play on the iPod is Apple itself.
So, the labels can choose to play by on Apple’s turn by Apple’s rules. And, it has been long-established that the labels would like to have more pricing flexibility for individual tracks than Apple’s strict $0.99/song structure. So, how can the labels circumvent Apple’s monopoly? Working with iTunes competitors that use Microsoft’s widely-licensed Windows Media DRM? That hasn’t worked out too well, yet. The various Windows Media compatible players and stores are used bby many fewer listeners than the iPod experience. More importantly, they are not a competitor to iTunes for the iPod platform.
The only way to get to the iPod platform without using Apple’s DRM is to sell unprotected files. Going DRM-free is not a statement about the awful restrictiveness of DRM. Rather, it is simply an attempt to challenge Apple’s hegemony over digital downloads for the iPod. If these experiments are successful and labels start selling large amounts of their catalog in download stores that do not use DRM, it would be a direct result of Apple’s overwhelming success in the digital music market.
DRM promotes vendor lock-in more than it protects against copyright infringement. By relying on third-party DRM technology, copyright owners could be more effectively shackling themselves to their new alien overlords instead of protecting their copyrighted works from infringement.