“Apple Inc. is throwing its weight behind the music industry’s efforts to protect the album format by allowing fans to buy complete digital albums without having to pay again for songs they already own,” Yinka Adegoke reports for Reuters.

Adegoke reports, “The record industry is keen to maintain the profitable album format, which is under threat as users of Web-based music download stores, such as Apple’s iTunes and Napster Inc., prefer to buy individual songs rather than whole albums.”

“Apple said on Thursday iTunes is introducing a ‘Complete My Album’ service that offers customers who want to turn individual tracks into an album a 99-cent credit for every song they have already purchased from the album,” Adegoke reports.

“The new service comes as the music industry is under pressure to find new ways to boost profits, as sales of digital songs have so far failed to come close to replacing the downturn in revenue from CD sales,” Adegoke reports. “According to Nielsen SoundScan, U.S. album sales in both physical and digital formats fell 10 percent in the first quarter of 2007 compared to the same period a year ago.”

Adegoke reports, “At eMusic, the No. 2 digital music store, the company said it has been offering a similar service since launch and that over 60 percent of all its downloads were full-length albums. ‘The premise that the album is dead is only true among the youth segment, which is really the iTunes customer,’ eMusic Chief Executive David Pakman said. eMusic currently does not carry music from the major labels and said it serves a mainly older customer base than iTunes.”

“The major record companies will open separate talks with Apple over the summer and will try to improve the terms of their respective relationships,” Adegoke reports.

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: The album is an artificial construct developed by the music cartels to get more of your money for less effort. The album is – plain and simple – a bundling technique. Take some marketable material, add a greater percentage of filler, call it an “album,” pretend it’s “art,” and charge more than you could charge for just the worthwhile bits. While some small percentage of artists throughout the history of the album construct have taken the concept to an art form and more than few music customers have bought so fully into the marketing construct as to defend it passionately today, that does not change the fact that the “album” is a product bundle designed to collect more money for the good stuff by bundling it with a greater percentage of filler.

Cavemen did not sit around the fire singing “albums,” they sang songs. When the music industry began, they sold single songs. The “album” is a marketing tool. Is it “art” that an “album” is between 30-60 minutes? No, that length is based on nothing more than how much the recording mediums could hold at the time the “album” began to be marketed.

It’s nice that Apple is offering to take into account money spent on singles for those that later wish to purchase the “album” in which they were bundled, but the basic fact remains: iTunes Store’s ‘Complete My Album’ “service” is advertising masquerading as a feature designed to placate the music cartel’s abject horror that their “album” construct is disintegrating before their eyes. Disintegrating back to music’s natural form: the song; as it has been for hundreds of thousands of years before the marketeers began pushing the “album” construct. The music cartel’s know that you already bought the songs you liked and now, with Apple’s help, they want you buy the whole “album,” whether you really like or want the other songs or not – as usual. (Oh, how the music cartel misses the efficacy with which $15 CDs containing one or two good songs bought them mansions, cars, and boats while keeping their noses powdered.)

Related articles:
Apple debuts new iTunes Store ‘Complete My Album’ service (advertising masquerading as a feature) – March 29, 2007
Apple plans iTunes credit for purchased singles if customers later buy album – March 26, 2007
WSJ: Music sales take sharp plunge – March 21, 2007