Listen! Did you hear that? That was the sound of opportunity as it went whooshing by overhead, never again to return. See, while the iTunes Music Store is debatably the coolest thing since sliced bread, it's really only as cool as bread that's only available in the U.S. and only fits in about 3% of the world's toasters (the best 3%, but 3% nonetheless). Apple rolled out a nifty pay-per-song download service last April, and it's a hit with Mac OS X-using music fans, but the fact that a Windows version won't be in place until the end of the year allowed Scott Blum to step quietly into the virgin snow and proceed to spew malodorous BuyMusic.com all over the landscape.

Granted, by the time Apple finally shows up, iTunes is only going to look (and smell) that much better by comparison, but who knows how many potential customers left the downloadable music market forever after getting BuyMusic all over their shoes? Worse yet, these are Windows users we're talking about, here; what if some of them are so used to a lifetime of techno-abuse and using utter crap that they gladly swallow what BuyMusic feeds them and never even give iTunes a second glance? Had iTunes for Windows been the trailblazer in that market, we bet BuyMusic would have folded a week after its launch.

So, yeah, there's something to be said for being first to market; the fact that BuyMusic hasn't choked to death on its own putrescence yet is proof enough of that. And now it turns out that Apple has not only missed being first in the U.S. Windows market, but it's also going to be playing "me too" in Europe as well. The iTMS, as we've mentioned before, still hasn't reached Europe for Mac or Wintel users, due to European records labels' and artists' inexplicable resistance to the effects of Steve's Reality Distortion Field; Apple has thus far been unable to hammer out a licensing deal-- but someone else has. Faithful viewer David Poves (lately we're all about the Poves) informs us that Microsoft has just launched a subscriptionless pay-per-download iTMS clone in Europe, and it's live today. Silicon.com has more.

Now, if you're wondering just how Microsoft managed to slap together an iTMS knockoff and graft it into Windows Media Player when, according to The Mac Observer, Bill Gates was just "considering" a pay-per-song download service as late as July, the answer is simple: they paid someone else to do it. Enter OD2, the only online music distribution service that's managed to secure licensing deals from the Big Five labels in Europe. Interestingly enough, OD2 was cofounded by a decidedly doughy-looking Peter Gabriel, whose RDF powers evidently trump even Jobs's, at least when it comes to shmoozing record company execs into letting you sell their songs online. Shock that monkey, Steve!

Since the service just debuted today, it's a little early to compare its features to those of the iTMS, but here's what we know so far: first of all, songs are a little pricier, with most costing about $1.12 and some running as high as $1.91; the prices even vary a bit depending on which country you're standing in when you purchase. The big issue, of course, is usage rights, and so far there isn't much to go on, but according to BBC News, OD2 CEO Charles Grimsdale claims that "fans can copy tracks, burn them to CDs, and transfer them to other devices as much as they want 'within reason.'" Then again, this is the same guy who claims that "Microsoft's service was not a direct response to iTunes' popularity," so there may be a slight credibility gap there. The Register reports that "not all" of the songs' copyright owners have "sanctioned" transfers to portable players or burning to CD, implying a hodgepodge of varying restrictions similar to the big stinking mess over at BuyMusic.

Still, no matter how good or bad it turns out to be, Microsoft's (well, OD2's, we suppose) version was first-- which will certainly put Apple at somewhat of a disadvantage when it finally scrapes together the licenses it needs to launch the iTMS in Europe. Meanwhile, a word of caution to Peter Gabriel: you may have been an AppleMaster, but there's a good chance you just wound up on Steve Jobs's enemies list. Avoid large, open areas with lots of surrounding high windows, stick to the shadows, and hire a food-taster ASAP.