The Radiohead catalog has never been on iTunes because of one of those impasses that occur when the implacable prejudices of two artistes collide. Radiohead wanted it albums to be available in full—only. Apple wanted the individual songs available for download as well.

Neither position made any sense. (I would explain why, but who, really, frickin’ cares?) At any rate, Wired reports that the band finally backed down, and the band’s presence, as I write, is heralded on the front page of the iTunes store.

As I’ve mentioned before, the only interesting aspect of such stories is how much money the band has lost by forgoing official (i.e., remunerative) digital distribution of its work earlier. The Beatles are the poster child here. Back at the dawn of the CD era, making the band’s work available on disc was a big, hullabalooed deal, and paid off handsomely.

But fans of the Beatles have now been merrily digitizing the music from their own CDs or those of friends for a decade.  When the Beatles’ work comes to iTunes, there will be hullabaloo, all right, but it will also represent not a big financial payoff but the long-delayed staunching of a financial wound.