Apple today announced Complete My Album, a new iTunes service that allows customers to turn their individual tracks into a complete album at a reduced price by giving them a full 99 cent credit for every track they have previously purchased from that album.
“Music fans can now round out their music collections by upgrading their singles into complete albums with just one click, and get full credit for those songs they have previously purchased from iTunes,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes, in the press release. “Complete My Album is a wonderful new way that iTunes helps customers grow and enjoy their music collections.”
“iTunes continues to revolutionize the digital music industry by offering music fans innovative ways to explore and enjoy new music,” said Thomas Hesse, president, Global Digital Business and US Sales, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, in the press release. “With Complete My Album, iTunes is giving music fans the best of both worlds—the ability to discover great new music by buying just the single and a credit toward the purchase of the complete album.”
Complete My Album offers customers up to 180 days after first purchasing individual songs from any qualifying album to purchase the rest of that album at a reduced price. When users buy any song on iTunes the corresponding album will immediately appear on their personalized Complete My Album page with the reduced price listed. For example, a user who’s already purchased three 99 cent singles and decides to buy the corresponding $9.99 album would be able to download the remaining songs to complete the album for just $7.02, without having to buy the singles again.
The iTunes Store features the world’s largest catalog with over four million songs, 350 television shows and over 400 movies. The iTunes Store has sold over two billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over 1.3 million movies, making it the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store.
More info at Apple’s iTunes Store here.
This is an attempt to keep the outmoded album concept around for a little while longer. It is highly-targeted marketing; just try it and see. All of your iTunes Store-purchased songs that don’t have the rest of the album in your library (ie. the stuff you didn’t want or like the first time around) are gathered together for you and you’re presented with ads to buy the rest of the albums. Our guess as to why they (the music labels and/or Apple) put the 180-day limit on this is simply another marketing tactic: time-limited offers create additional motivation for you to buy now. This is advertising masquerading as a feature.
Related article:
Apple plans iTunes credit for purchased singles if customers later buy album – March 26, 2007
WSJ: Music sales take sharp plunge – March 21, 2007
This will appeal to some who like to fill a albulm regardless, until they realize that they now have accumulated several thousand songs that they never listen too and wished they could have all that money invested elsewhere.
Of course I admit cherry picking a few “hit” songs out of a albulm, thinking only the “hits” were good enough to listen too all the time, just to change my mind and later filling the rest of the albulm, sometimes even everything the artist has ever created.
Many people who first come to buying music are drawn by the rather limited hit songs they hear on the radio.
The “ala cart” purchase method is still best, it keeps the Labels and artists honest. If the rest of a artists album is decent enough to purchase, then a easier method and a discount should be given, which this new metod introduces.
Also, the key word with the “feature” is eligible. There are a couple of singles I purchased to albums that I want to buy, but the “feature” doesn’t apply to those albums. I guess the record labels must have some sort of crazy popularity algorithm that won’t allow the upgrade if the album is selling well or something.
Even with a time limit for future song purchases, it would be huge were they to grandfather in prior purchases going back to the inception of the iTMS. That Apple didn’t offer this shows that they are not the great marketing geniuses many assume they are.
It’s here in Ireland too…
At least it’s an option that some people will want.
And lets face it, if this was being run by Microslap they would charge you a “50 cent Upgrade fee” & 28 days to avail of the offer!
someone asked, “Can you use Microsoft Points?”
Not yet, but he Europena Union is working to make it happen!
This is an excellent feature. Enough said.
This is not a marketing ploy. It’s called being fair.
Just buy the individual tracks and you get the same deal. Yawn.
GREAT idea, except the time limit – iTunes should be like a jukebox….the more tunes you buy, the better discount you get. And too bad it’s not retro….but at least it’s now an option.
It’s on the UK store.
Hey MDN, check out the comments on the TUAW post on this, because I agree. You’re being overly negative about the whole deal. Heralding the “end of the album” is a little premature. The album is still considered to be an entire work of art; many bands make albums to get a concept across, not just as a medium to get out single tracks.
The fact is also that this is a FEATURE not an advertising gimmick. People often buy the single when it comes out, then they go to buy the real deal but have to pay for the single AGAIN.
People, like me, listen to one or two songs by an artist and then realize how much we like them, then we go back and get the rest of the CD.
Or let’s say you hear the single on the radio so you buy it. Two weeks later you’re hearing another song from that CD on the radio and you’re also liking it. Then a week later it’s ANOTHER song off that album on the radio. (Can you say Maroon 5? Mariah Carey?) Suddenly, you realize the whole album isn’t all that bad. Sometimes it takes that try to get you to buy.
Stop crapping on a good thing.
Ed’s right with the exception of some songs are sold only with the album. It’s comforting to know that successful marketing gurus join in here to stop Apple from making all those stupid mistakes they’ve been making over the years, like the iPod, iTunes, the Mac, etc. Oh what’s that? Do I detect the fragrance of sarcasm? Wellll, yes I do. Ok, there was the Cube. I stand corrected. I guess you can’t please everyone all the time.
Wow, MDN said something critical of Apple.
10 bucks says the 180 day limit was implemented at the record industry’s insistence.
Alert Alert Alert!!!
MDN is not 100% behind Apple, monthly check from Apple will have automatic 10% deduction.
Stick to what you know, MDN – I’ll give you a hint: it ain’t music. There’s no surer sign of a person who doesn’t actually enjoy music with any discernible passion than one who bitches and moans about the altogether poor quality of new music. Especially the tired, bogus bit about all albums having one or two good songs surrounded by a buncha filler. You would’ve had a point in, say, 1965, before the dawn of the album age. And I understand your experience may be informed by, say, that last Gwen Stefani album you bought, but the reality is that that mass-marketed major-label swill – a tiny fraction of what’s out there – is hardly representative of “new music.” In fact, its creation and distribution are anomalies in the context.
Anyone who cares about music, and invests time and energy into the discovery of it, may agree with my take that, in fact, we’re in an age of musical innovation and artistic achivement and, damnit, kids making great music – without crippling major-label oversight – that we haven’t seen in almost 30 years. If you know where to find it – and it’s not on the radio and it’s not on MTV2 – you’ll probably agree.
But I’ll let you go now, MDN. Seacrest is on in a few.
Isn’t Complete My Album the title of Britney’s latest?
I completely agree with what skeeter said. An album is a work of art, and not a dying one. If you only like one or two songs from every album you buy, you either don’t like music that much, or only listen to really bad music. There are tons of artists releasing great full albums where every song is a keeper, and the album is more then the sum of it’s parts. In summery, MDN, stop making comments about music, they are just blatantly ignorant.
This is good. I agree with the previous poster that it would be good to have this option available for TV Shows. Still, I won’t be buying music encoded at 128Kbs. Why aren’t we getting lossless already? The SHuffle? DOesn’t iTunes re-encode music headed to a shuffle anyway? Oh…its the record companies.
Sure, it’s geared toward getting you to buy more stuff on iTunes, but what’s so bad about that? ‘Tis the nature of the store concept.
At least they toned down those little arrow links from your music library into the store, so now they only show on the selected and currently playing song.
Personally, I like the idea of being able to try one or two songs from an artist, and if I like what I’m hearing in the 30 second previews for the other songs, to support that artist (especially if it’s an indy label) by buying the rest of the album.
(Don’t forget, some albums have stuff you can only get with the whole album, like the digital booklets or album-only songs)
Works in the UK. Don’t think I shall be using it much though.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jvk/438633664/
MDN you get too cranky sometimes…not often…but sometimes. I happen to like THIS new feature if the iTS! You may cherish your singles by Avril & Beyonce and all the other one hit pop acts that the music industry throws at the tasteless buyers around this country…and the poor world…but I, however, enjoy music by, i guess, a much more talented pool of artists so i buy the whole albums. There have been times, however, when i’ve been curious about an artist and wanted to buy one of the popular tracks but have decided not to because I knew that if I ended up liking the band I would be penalized for trying them out…so I, like so many others, turned to friends, or the torrents, to find the album. THIS feature will make the iTS a much more friendly music discovery process. MDN, & others sceptical of this new service, can continue to use American Idol as their primary music discovery source…but I welcome it and it’s long overdue!
Spudly speaks.
>This is advertising masquerading as a feature.
Well said MDN. There’s way too much marketing creeping into iTunes. They may going to kill the goose that lays their golden eggs if they continue in this way by making it offensive to use. I want iTunes to rip and play my music, not to poll my music and tastes, then try to sell me stuff.
btw-
CWEB – that’s the stupidest idea ever. never gonna happen.
Skeeter – you hit the nail on the head bro!
I especially dislike how they allow iTunes to be automatically highjacked by HTML links to take me to the iTunes Store. I click a link expecting to go to a website, only to find it firing up iTunes. I don’t like this and I can’t think of another application that does this without being specifically told to do so. They don’t let me shut the feature off, or even offer an option to view it as a webpage that I can visit with my browser.
Advertising is not necessarily a bad thing (except intrusive ads on some web sites in spam and junk mail). Ads let you know what’s out there. We would know very little without advertising. So, we presented with an option that most posters here and elsewhere think is a good idea, saving some people money, not forcing them to spend money. Yes, this is an odd position for MDN. Maybe MDN needed a little more sleep before writing the Take?