As someone who’s impatiently bought many pre-release singles on iTunes and then gritted my teeth as I paid full price for the album with the same song, this helps: Apple has released a new iTunes Store feature dubbed Complete My Album that lets consumers buy the remaining songs from an album for which they’ve already purchased singles on iTunes at a reduced price.
For example, if you’ve bought three 99-cent singles and later decide to buy the corresponding $9.99 album, you would be able to download the remaining songs to complete the album for just $7.02, without having to buy the singles again.
The feature gives customers up to 180 days after first purchasing individual songs from any qualifying album to buy the rest of that album at a reduced price. Release
Record companies will surely hope that Apple’s new service will tilt the balance toward album sales. A few days ago, the NYT noted the death of the album. The article cited Nielsen SoundScan figures showing that sales of digital songs have risen 54 percent, to roughly 189 million units this year. Digital album sales are rising at a slightly faster pace, but buyers are purchasing digital singles over albums by a margin of 19 to 1.
Rafat adds: Common sense at work, finally. Would be interested to find out what other online music stores do about this double-dipping, so to speak. Anyone?
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