Pete Townshend really doesn't understand iTunes

I get the overwhelming feeling that Pete Townshend, guitarist and songwriter for rock group The Who, really doesn't understand iTunes and and how digital music works.

I'm basing this on comments he is reported to have made by the AP.

During the first John Peel Lecture (named in honor of the British radio broadcaster who died in 2004) Townshend calls Apple's iTunes digital music service a 'digital vampire' which profits from music but doesn't do anything to support the artists who create it.

I'm confused ... Apple, like every other music store (both online and off), sells music and the artists get paid. What more should there be to this deal? Why should iTunes (or any other retailer) have to start employing talents scouts or offer space to bands so they can stream their music?

Maybe iTunes could become a label of its own, but that's and entirely different argument.

If this responsibility falls on anyone, shouldn't it fall onto the record companies?

But then Townshend makes an even stranger statement:

'It would be better if music lovers treated music like food, and paid for every helping, rather than only when it suited them. Why can't music lovers just pay for music rather than steal it?'

What? People downloading music from iTunes are paying for the music they are consuming. If iTunes wasn't as prolific as it is, I'm certain that music piracy would be much more rampant and widespread than it currently is.

Like iTunes or loathe it, it's now a vital part of the music industry.