When you can buy just the songs you like in a digital format, you don't have to buy the album.
There's nothing that makes more sense than selling digital content. It completely removes the inventory problem. It completely removes physical handling of goods. That's really the holy grail for online retailers.
This is an echo of what we've seen before. It is a classic case of Microsoft working to establish itself as a de facto standard, now in digital media.
Their world is an analog world; it isn't digital. Electronic media of the future is clearly going to be digital. So you need to have digital in your DNA.