For the last month and a half, the buzz on the music industry has revolved around the monumental move by English band Radiohead to self-release a digital version of its seventh album and allow fans to set their own price. It seems Radiohead never had any intention of revolutionizing the music industry; instead the band was attempting to curb a trend of online leaking before an official release, according to an interview transcribed by newspaper NME.

Singer Thom Yorke explains, "every record that we've done for ages has been leaked. Why not leak the bloody thing yourself?" Yorke is referring the the band's previous three albums, which were leaked in the weeks prior to their releases. For the band's 2000 album Kid A, the leak managed to propel the album to #1 in the Billboard 200. Not a bad thing at all really, but it does take the control away from the band.

The front man also revealed that he paid nothing for In Rainbows (it would basically have been like "moving money from one pocket to another"), seeming to acknowledge the rumors that the release was nothing more than a publicity stunt for the pending CD release later this year. In the end, Yorke also admits that the digital move also "came from the band's management who didn't want to release an album while out of contract."

No matter these revelations, the album and its initial release should still be viewed for the changes that will be wrought in the music industry. Radiohead should refrain from being so modest.

It seems that whenever you talk to someone about the music industry, the discussion eventually comes to the steep decline that has occurred in the past few years as the growth of digital downloads has affected the sales of CDs. Whenever I think about that decline, it's hard to see it simply because I still purchase a large quantity of CDs and only a handful of downloads per month. Still though, when I do download an album it always (and I mean always) comes from Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes Store, primarily because I own an iPod.

While that may sound like a complaint, it really isn't because I have always found the iTunes Store very usable and the iPod very convenient, but the reality is that not everyone shares that opinion. For some users, the question of accessibility has become a major issue, and iTunes dominance in the market affects how accessible they view the market. This is not without warrant of course -- no matter the success of Apple with the iPod and iTunes; it is still a dominating product in a shrinking field. This view does not even take in the account of CD users.

With the beta launch this week of Amazon.com's (NASDAQ: AMZN) MP3 store, Apple finally has a competitor that will be able to challenge iTunes with sales and prices, not to mention that the DRM-free (Digital Rights Technology) downloads will be playable on the iPod, among other portable devices. Amazon's DRM-free tracks are not limited to music from EMI Group PLC and numerous independent labels, either. Certainly both of these differences will aid the new Amazon "iTunes" store, but the very fact that it remains an online store adding an MP3 section means that it should fare well against a store dedicated strictly to media digital downloads.

Today marks the 50th anniversary (July 6, 1957) of Paul McCartney meeting John Lennon in a church fete (fair) in Liverpool to form the core partnership that would become The Beatles. In 2007, there has been no "official" Beatles release or related material, but the world still looks on and music fans still buy up products by and related to the four members. Last month, Paul McCartney's 21st solo album Memory Almost Full debuted at #3 in the Billboard 200, while the collected works of the George Harrison supergroup Traveling Wilburys debuted at #9. Meanwhile, the John Lennon-fueled, various contemporary artists-filled Instant Karma compilation designed to aid Darfur debuted at #15.

While these numbers may be impressive for the products of the former Beatles more than 37 years after the band broke up, the music industry slowly and loudly falls apart in self-defeating decline. Luckily, we do not (and frankly cannot) look to The Beatles to save the industry. It's likely the band could not anyhow, despite the potential sales the digital catalog that may one day see light of day might pull in. With the uncertainty of that release on the horizon, all that is left now is the current state of the music industry, but it is not unlike the music industry that The Beatles entered. True, the early 1960s were not a state of decline, but when The Beatles started, the emphasis was not on albums. It was on singles. Is there any difference in the digital tracks that see higher downloads than albums? There might be, but fundamentally there is not.

If The Beatles catalog is ever released it will likely sell the same way many albums today sell. Yes, fans will buy the newest remastered versions from digital stores and relish in the joy of buying a Beatles album in a new way for the first time (akin to 1987's CD versions?), but new listeners (and maybe even some fans) will buy up their favorite tracks, destroying the core albums in the same way that albums are not bought today. Everyone says the album is dying, but in the industry it may never have been meant to be.

As I noted yesterday, rumors dropped recently that Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) will soon begin offering digital movie downloads from Lion's Gate studios (and most likely, other studios too) in its push to jumpstart the competition in the emerging market for digital content delivery. Yes, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iTunes music store has had this market cornered for quite some time, starting with music downloads and continuing with movie and television show downloads. But, those pieces have been limited to the PC and iPod ecosystem (until the Apple TV came along this year, at least).

Consumers want their content to work across products, manufacturers and standards, which has been the reason why some movie download services have not gotten off to a start at all. When all the technical and content protection limitations are known by customers, they generally react like they should: "I'm just not interested." Best Buy's recent role expansion of an entertainment VP to oversee its U.S. entertainment business, however, shows that the retailer may in fact get its foot deeper into the emerging digital content field (music, movies, possibly more). That is, if it can give the market what it wants: unfettered and easy access to content across devices and platforms.

It's pretty apparent by now that entertainment content is moving towards all-digital delivery. It's cheaper, more immediate and has tremendous cost advantages. At the same time content owners continue to be scared to death that all these advantages could be stamped out by rabid content copying and unauthorized transmission over the Internet (without any payments changing hands). Will Best Buy be the one that makes digital content like music and movies easy to download, use and re-use on a variety of devices? It's recent focus on customer relationship development would point to "yes" as an answer to this question, although Apple has made the first bold move here. Who's next? If it's Best Buy, it will be hard to stop the distribution of digital content soon.

Maybe it was the smugness Christian Laettner displayed during my formative years, or the subtle differences between NBA and NCAA Basketball rules, but professional basketball has always been my least favorite of the major sports.

I am impressed, however, with the National Basketball Association's acknowledgment of the digital age. Today, the league announced that it has rolled out a video-download store, at which fans can purchase digital copies of playoff games for $3 a pop. Entire series are available for $13 each, with a full playoff season available for $80.

The league's vice president of interactive services was quoted by the New York Times as saying "great games and surprising results have driven the most popular downloads." Among the heaviest downloads have been the series between the Golden State Warriors and the Dallas Mavericks, as well as last year's final championship-series match-up between the Mavericks and the Miami Heat.

The NBA is the first of the major sports organizations to offer such a service, though other leagues are reportedly converting game footage into digital clips in order to satiate fan demand. An executive with Major League Baseball reveals the league's plans to introduce a video-search product later this year, allowing fans to search through hundreds of clips to find specific highlights (which will likely be available for free). The National Football League is introducing a video-heavy version of its web site this summer and exploring the ramifications of offering historical video footage.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) are launching a new MP3 player with WiFi capacity, joining a host of rivals to Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPod, including the Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Zune.

The iPod currently has 70% of the portable music player market, and, that number appears to be holding. If the iPhone sells well, Apple will have another horse in the music download space. Cellphones that can download music are offered by the large handset manufacturers including Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) and Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), but there is little evidence that they have done any damage to the iPod's growth rate.

As much as it must pain Apple's competitors, no one has been able to throw anything in front of the company to slow the momentum of the iPod and its download service iTunes. The European Union recently announced that it would look into pricing issues involving iTunes and the record companies. That may eventually hurt Apple just as antitrust actions by the EU have slowed Microsoft's progress on the Continent.

Apple's only enemy appears to be its own success.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.