Enough with the Mac angst: on with the music angst! Now that the downloadable music ecosystem is more varied than ever and bigger players like Napster and Sony Connect are trying to carve out their respective chunks of the market, is the iTunes Music Store still keeping its momentum? Well, there's only one way to find out: time for another iTMS sales check! When last we heard any official numbers from Apple, the iTMS had sold over 70 million songs as of the end of April, but yesterday Reuters reported that the number had climbed to "more than 85 million downloads." So what does that tell us?

Well, lessee here: that breaks down to 15 million songs downloaded in six weeks, or an average of 2.5 million each week. But back in April, Apple had reported that it was selling 2.7 million per week, and just a week after that it sold 3.3 million in a seven-day period-- so given the math of the situation, sales have obviously slowed way down in the past five weeks, to levels well below the April rate. It's even worse if those 15 million downloads include all those free Singles o' the Week that cheapskates like ourselves have been grabbing whether we like the songs or not.

Clearly it's time to panic and run screaming through the streets. Go ahead, we'll wait.

[whistles, cleans fingernails]

All done? Good. Because here's the thing, see: if you really want to wallow in angst, there's a fair chance that things are going to get much worse before long. You know how none of the music services have any Beatles music to speak of? While you can snag a few obscure early tracks like a recording of "My Bonnie" by Tony Sheridan with John, Paul, George, and Pre-Ringo as his backup band, forget about buying a legal download of Revolver or Abbey Road. That's because, for whatever reason, the Fab Four (or their next of kin) have staunchly refused to allow the band's music to be sold in downloadable form. Maybe it's some variation of the old "if someone takes your photograph they've stolen your soul" superstition. No idea.

Well, the good news is that the lack of downloadable Beatles songs may soon change; Reuters reports that "representatives of the Beatles are in discussions with various online music services about licensing their songs for distribution on the Internet." Took 'em long enough. But there's just one little problem: what do you suppose the odds are that the Beatles are going to choose iTunes as a service through which it sells its music in downloadable form? Given that the band is suing Apple over launching the iTMS in the first place, we're thinking it's sort of a long shot. Indeed, while "negotiators for the Beatles have talked with several companies," apparently there's been "a particular emphasis on Microsoft Corp's MSN, which is expected to open an Internet music store late this summer."

Obviously, with $56 billion in cash stacked up in the back room, Microsoft has all the filthy lucre it needs to secure exclusive access to the entire Beatles catalog if it wants to-- and what better way to launch its iTMS clone later this year than by introducing the only service on the 'net with downloadable versions of everything from "Please Please Me" through "Let It Be"? While such a move wouldn't exactly crush Apple's entire music business overnight, if you're the gloomy sort, it would certainly look like the beginning of the end.

We're not saying that's necessarily the way it's going to play out, of course, but if the Beatles really are considering finally allowing the sale of their songs through download services, they wield a very large club in this whole Apple vs. Apple imbroglio. Heck, they could easily license their tunes to everyone but Apple, just to twist the knife. We can't wait to see how this turns out...