Idol + Itunes Team Up

Love it or hate it, there's no denying that despite being in its 7th season, American Idol still packs a veritable music industry punch.

AI continues to rake in the ratings, and many major artists -- from Billy Joel to Paul McCartney -- have, at some point, licensed their song catalog to be used on the show. Past winners Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood have gone on to win Grammys. (Heck, even past losers like Chris Daughtry and Clay Aiken have seen their albums top the Billboard charts.)

So it doesn't come as a complete surprise that iTunes has finally jumped on the Idol bandwagon. Last month, iTunes began selling exclusive MP3s of AI's weekly contestant performances. And starting today, full videos of the performances are also available for sale.

Which means for only $2, you can watch a semi-tone deaf high schooler murder a perfectly good Journey song. On your iPod. As many times as you want.

(Or, better idea? You could buy the original song for half the price. Either way, it's a good week for iTunes.)