Looks like the iTunes Music Store is really making an impact on the music industry, at least if the frequency of its recent appearances at Billboard.com is any indication. We found out about both of them via The Mac Observer, who noted that the iTMS isn't just distributing exclusive tracks anymore; now it's starting to sell exclusive albums. Specifically, the soundtrack to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the summer blockbuster about such famous fictional characters as Dorian Gray, Tom Sawyer, and Sean Connery) is apparently only available via the iTMS; in the U.S., at least, you can't even walk into a record store and buy it on CD.

No offense, but how crazy is that? Not that we're against online digital music distribution, of course, but we always liked the idea of being able to buy a real CD if we wanted. The notion that someday commercial music might only be available as 128 kbps AAC files sans liner notes makes us a little nervous-- although, truth be told, we're far more wigged out by the thought that the LXG people agreed to have its movie soundtrack made available only to Mac users running Mac OS X, which clearly makes for a potential market that's just a teensy fraction of the audience it might have had through normal physical distribution channels. Somebody was smoking something illegal when he or she greenlit that deal.

And then there's the case of Ben Folds, who's using the iTMS as part of his master plan to release music he wants to release in the way he wants to release it, without all that tedious mucking about with the record labels. It seems that ol' Ben is working around his contractual obligations to produce albums for his label by instead recording three five-song EPs this year. "There is no escaping the way that we have to do business when I release an album," says he, but "the way to bypass that for me is just to not go though the normal channels." Hence, the EPs-- which will be sold only at concerts, via his web site, and at the iTMS. You'll be able to get them at stores, but only on vinyl, and they won't be played on the radio.

To Ben, this is ideal, because to him, releasing albums is just a "matter of formality" and a "contractual obligation." If you're wondering how his label (Epic) is letting him get away with this, apparently they're fine with it because they're "just barely getting by" as it is. Which may provide a little insight into how Steve Jobs was able to extract distribution rights from all the major labels; we always doubted that the Reality Distortion Field alone could coax such an unprecedented number of concessions from the recording industry, and now we're pretty sure it was a one-two punch of the RDF and empty pockets that pulled it off.

Whatever it was that led to the creation of the iTMS in its current form, we're glad it happened. We never expected that it would be more than a supplemental means of buying the same old music-- a faster method, and maybe cheaper, but no different content-wise. Now it looks like it really might be starting to affect the creation of the music itself, by giving musicians like Ben Folds who are down on the album format an alternate distribution channel. And if the entire LXG soundtrack can be released as download-only, what other albums will choose to go that route once Windows users can join in the party? Strange days, indeed.