Fresh off the heels of a successful mini-tour of the United States, Radiohead's former label, privately-held EMI Group, has released a new greatest hits album and made the band's back catalog available on Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes Store. British-based download retailer 7digital first scored Radiohead's back catalog last September but was only able to sell the music as album-based downloads, but without the anti-piracy technology digital rights management. iTunes will offer DRM-free files, but also individual track downloads in addition to album-based purchases.

The back catalog's availability on iTunes follows the band acclaimed seventh, non-EMI released album, In Rainbows, by about five months. According to Billboard, "Radiohead had been holding out because of its desire for fans to buy the albums in complete form, rather than as individual tracks." Billboard also quotes unnamed sources that claim "iTunes always had the option of selling Radiohead's back catalog in album-bundled form, but did not do so, in keeping with the fact that the overwhelming majority of artists sell their music as individual track downloads on the service."

Billboard calls iTunes practice of offering individual track downloads over album-bundled forms "a smart one from a financial standpoint." Digital sales of In Rainbows accounted for 106,000 of its 526,000 copies sold. It is also a good one for the industry since single track downloads have grown in popularity and make it easy for listeners to choose what they want to hear from artists. Even though Radiohead tracks are available as individual track downloads now, it would be unsurprising if the albums did not also witness nice sales from new and old listeners.