In more than a few years, but in certainly less than a decade, Apple is going to pull a switcheroo on the record industry. Apple will force the record companies to pay hard cash to sell their catalog of music through iTunes. It's their worst nightmare come true.

That probably sounds far-fetched, but it's not. Back in the dark days of the internet everyone wanted to be a portal because that is all there was: fledgling companies able to provide access, growing out of BBSs and mom and pop ISPs. Get bigger and get more customers at any cost so you can keep replacing all your equipment twice a year to keep up with the growth.

One of those players was America Online and their way of keeping customers was to pay others for content. That's right: AOL would pay other companies to make what we would today call web pages that drove customers to use their portal. And it worked, so well in fact that one day AOL said no more. You pay us now. And they did, because at that time there was no better place to get traffic to your company than through AOL.

There is another example, closer to home: your local supermarket, game store, or practically any retail establishment. Any company that has a product and wants to sell it in that store has to pay for shelf space and has to live with the store's draconian return and payment policies. Or else they get no shelf space and have to build their own stores (like Apple did).

It's just a matter of time. I'll take a wild stab at a year that I think it will happen: 2013.

Tags: Apple, iTunes, Switcheroo, Crazy Ideas