The End of "Greatest Hits" As We Know It?

The NY Times ponders the impact of digital downloads on the music industry's cash cow... the Greatest Hits CD..

Their popularity indicates that fans are flocking to online services like iTunes at least in part to pluck out celebrated oldies, not to mention the occasional 90's alternative memento (Oasis's "Wonderwall" has sold more than 251,000 copies so far) or 80's strip-club staple (Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me" has surpassed 216,000). All of this comes at a time when fans enjoy a wealth of new choices in how to buy and listen to music.

But the popularity of such songs raises a troubling issue for the music business, which relies in part on the huge profits generated by greatest-hits collections, perennially selling classic albums and the continual repackaging of old material. The question: What if fans who might have paid for a full album of "the very best" of an established act instead choose to pay substantially less and simply buy the very, very best song?