iTunes Album Credit for Singles

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

A CNet blog claims (http://news.com.com/2061-11516_3-6134596.html?tag=nefd.top) that Apple is working with labels to provide more incentive for customers to purchase full albums -- or at least not penalize them for buying singles ahead of time.

At present, if you purchase an iTunes single ($.99), and then later purchase the full album ($9.99), you are double paying for that single ($10.98). According to their sources, CNet states that in the future iTunes customers may get credit for any singles previously purchased when buying a full album.

"In the interest of more consumer-friendly transactions, that makes some sense," McGuire said. "In the end that's dependent on whether I see value in those other eight songs."

[Warbrain]

I read this over the weekend and I can't wait for it to happen. It'll be great. So many times have I bought the single and then the album.

[SpaceMagic]

I've often thought this and eventually just ended up downloading each of the album's songs individually. Sometimes however this means you don't get the Album only tracks!

[paddy]

What, record companies doing something nice for consumers?!?! :)

[Belly-laughs]

Looks like Apple have tons of negotiation muscle despite of MS´ attempt of bribing the music biz. Must have something to do with market share…

[Squonk]

Great idea!!! That would make me more likely to purchase songs online!

[fixyourthinking]

I hope they also get rid of ANY album only purchases. The only way to get a song off of the Chicken Little soundtrack was to buy the whole album through iTunes.

It was a great cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "All I Know" by Five For Fighting - I paid the $9.99 for it because I happened to have won a few iTunes gift cards.

[DTphonehome]

This is already being done if you "pre-order" certain whole albums (such as Tenacious D "Pick of Destiny")...you get the single now, and the rest of the album when it's released.

EDIT: Oh, now I see the difference...in this new scheme you won't actually have to buy the whole album to get the single...you can just get the single now for 99 cents, then the rest of the album for the remainder if you want it at a later time. Cool.

[boringName]

This will make me far less hesitant to buy singles, and more likely to buy the full album (which I admit to not doing just to be spitefull).

So, the record companies make more money, and I require less therapy :D

[spicyapple]

Perhaps now they can do away with Album-only pricing, considering it was a measure against people only buying one song but instead prevented people from buying any song at all!

[~Shard~]

This makes sense and it is also good customer service. I'm surprised Apple hasn't implemented a policy like this already, so here's hoping they do so in the very near future.

[CallmeKenneth]

Makes sense to me. There's gotta be a catch, though. Seems too altruisitic a move by big corporate companies..


_________________
Alternative Mac History Mactimewarp (http://www.mactimewarp.com)

[reallynotnick]

Perhaps now they can do away with Album-only pricing, considering it was a measure against people only buying one song but instead prevented people from buying any song at all!

Do you mean album-only songs? Not pricing.

Even if they do do this I don't think album only songs will go away. I do hope this happens though even if I may not use it very much or at all.

[Rojo]

I have done this so many times, it's sad.
If they could retroactively offer back-credit for customers who have bought singles and then full albums, I'd probably get $40-50 worth of credit.

I was very happy when they started to not penalize singles-buyers if they pre-bought the whole album. But then again, sometimes I'm not sure if I WANT the whole album before sampling it, so this new method will be a LOT cooler.

[The Monkey]

Sounds like a way to ward off some potential antitrust problems to me.

[spicyapple]

Sounds like a way to ward off some potential antitrust problems to me.
Can't see it as such since the consumer isn't strong-armed into buying singles or full albums. Apple probably got a lot of input from customers and saw that it probably made more sense to offer album pricing minus single song purchases.

[dobbin]

Makes sense to me. There's gotta be a catch, though. Seems too altruisitic a move by big corporate companies..


I'm sure it is designed to sell more singles and albums rather than just to be altruistic!

This is aimed at getting people who do not currently buy singles and albums to do so, rather than to give a discount to people who already buy both.

I have often bought 1 or 2 songs from an album, but I rarely buy a whole album (and if I do, I often go out and buy the CD). If I could get £2-3 discount off the album download price, then I might be temtped I suppose.

[The Monkey]

Can't see it as such since the consumer isn't strong-armed into buying singles or full albums. Apple probably got a lot of input from customers and saw that it probably made more sense to offer album pricing minus single song purchases.


Probably right, but it arguably is a tying problem and best avoided.

[ASP272]

I bought the Evanescence single for "Call Me When You're Sober" a few days before I pre-ordered the album. When I pre-ordered the album the charge for the single came off (I was never charged for it). Plus, maybe a glitch, they allowed me to download the single AGAIN as part of the pre-order of the album. So in the end I got the single for "Call Me . . ." and the album and another copy of "Call Me . . ." (the album version) again all for $9.99. This being a new album I think they are already setting this in place. That's my 2 cents. ;)

[Ashapalan]

Thanks to buying singles and then going on to buy the album, i have lost around £5. That's almost another full album. So this news is music to my ears.

[iSee]

I hope this is really true.
I also hope they do the same thing for TV shows.

I do think this will help overall sales. I would already have bought the Lost season pass but I couldn't stomach paying again for four episodes I already bought.

[Parky]

I made this suggestion to Apple over a year ago directly to a friend who works in the iTunes Store development team.

He said they had been trying to get this sorted for a while, even back then.

So it could be 100% true, I hope it is.

Ian

[settledown]

That just sounds fair. I'm sure Apple needs to tweak the buying protocols of the iTunes Store, but I bet they can do it.

Wonder if it will be retroactive.

[dernhelm]

'Bout time! Wonder if this applies to past-purchased songs, or only future purchased songs...

[twoodcc]

What, record companies doing something nice for consumers?!?! :)

yeah i know, it's unbelievable :eek:

[MrFirework]

Yay. Brilliant. :)

[p0intblank]

Now this would be really cool! It's just another reason to choose iTunes over retail. :)

[jacg]

I suggested this in feedback to Apple a while ago. I'm sure I wasn't the only one. I would definitely buy more complete albums if I knew I wasn't paying twice for single tracks that I'd already downloaded.

With the iTunes set-up it shouldn't be too hard to arrange, as long as the record companies agree...

[tk421]

This will make me far less hesitant to buy singles, and more likely to buy the full album (which I admit to not doing just to be spitefull).

So, the record companies make more money, and I require less therapy :D

Yeah, me too. There have been times when I have bought a couple tracks, liked them, bought a couple more, and pretty soon I have most of the album. If it was only $3 or $4 to get the rest, I would just take the plunge and buy it. But it ends up being more because of the number of tracks, or I will miss album-only songs. In the end, that's $3 or $4 the record company doesn't get from me under the current system.

Thanks, Apple! Keep pushing those record companies!

[notjustjay]

Yes, this is an excellent idea.

As it is I hardly purchase singles. I sit there, mouse hovering over the "buy" button, wondering ... should I buy this single, or should I just buy the whole CD? And then I generally leave myself the benefit of the doubt, and don't buy the single.

[mdntcallr]

this would be a welcome change. not only would people not get billed more, but it wouldnt punish people for getting more interested in buying more.

[PYR0M310N]

in line with saving money off IMS, I wish they would make the UK store the same price as the US store, as we currently pay the equivilent of $15.19

[gugy]

it's about time.
plus albums on iTunes should be cheaper: $6.99 or $7.99 but that never will happen because the greedy music labels.:(

[Doctor Q]

Yay. Brilliant. :)Yes, I agree that whoever came up with this idea must be absolutely brilliant and should be paid a huge amount by the record labels for this suggestion, which will bring them lots of new income from sales of "album upgrades". ;)

[anubis]

As long as they are keeping "track" of which songs you have downloaded (no pun intended, of course), why don't they go one step further and allow us to redownload songs we have already paid for but may have lost?

For example, if I have a hard drive crash and lose all of my purchased music, iTunes should allow me to redownload the songs I have already paid for. I have to log in with my account anyway, and I can only have a limited number of machines authenticated to play that song anyway, so what's the problem? I know I should back the songs up, but I just thought it would be a good idea....

[Thomas421]

problem with redownloading:

in theorie you could have e.g. 3 times the same song in your library, which equals with a LOT more cd burns, than just the one song?

[yg17]

problem with redownloading:

in theorie you could have e.g. 3 times the same song in your library, which equals with a LOT more cd burns, than just the one song?

Aren't iTMS songs unlimited burns anyways? Or was this changed?

[ryanw]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

A CNet blog claims (http://news.com.com/2061-11516_3-6134596.html?tag=nefd.top) that Apple is working with labels to provide more incentive for customers to purchase full albums -- or at least not penalize them for buying singles ahead of time.

At present, if you purchase an iTunes single ($.99), and then later purchase the full album ($9.99), you are double paying for that single ($10.98). According to their sources, CNet states that in the future iTunes customers may get credit for any singles previously purchased when buying a full album.

I don't know, I'm on the fence about this one. As a distributor in iTunes, I like the idea that the consumers get only their first chance at buying the whole album or singles seporately to save money. The person has the option to listen through all the track clips, if they like more than half the tracks they should buy the whole thing right away so that way they get a few tracks for "free" (for example 12 tracks for $9.99).

With the labels that I work with, the sales in iTunes DEFINITELY results in more money in the artist's pockets. Especially when it comes to Tour Support and other things.

Of course there's always the publishing royalties and stuff, the problem is a lot of artists were not so smart and sold or gave away their royalties for cash up front. But just because an artist wanted instant money instead of a long term stream of cash flow doesn't mean the public should be so "concerned" about the artists making money off album sales. Of course the argument is always, "Well, the artist didn't have any money or anything going for them at the time so they needed the money to survive so they signed it away." Well, if that's the case, then it sounds like the artist was desporate and should be greatful to have had a record label come in and rescue them from being a "struggling musician" for the rest of their lives.

[sbrhwkp3]

THANK GOD! Dave Matthews came out with a new live album that has live versions from Saratoga Performing Arts Center, which I go to every year, but the album is 18 songs long, and I've already bought most of the other ones, so I didn't want to spend 15 dollars on songs I've already bought... anyways this is great news.

[dextertangocci]

Will this work with tv seasons and the season pass? Like if you buy an episode and then decide that you want the season pass?

[Snowy_River]

Will this work with tv seasons and the season pass? Like if you buy an episode and then decide that you want the season pass?

Ah, this is the question that I really care about. You can get a reasonable feel for a song from a 30 second clip. After all, that's on the order of 10% of the content. A TV show, on the other hand, if we're talking about one show, then a 30 second clip gives you only about 1% of an hour long show. But, really, the bigger issue is that I don't know if an overall story line is going to be worth staying with until I've watched two or three episodes. Now, if I buy a season pass, I'm paying $6 extra for the season (which, one can still argue, is typically priced a bit on the high side - not that much less than buying the DVD when it's released, but with less content and lower resolution, though you do get it NOW). So, any show that I don't already know that I want to watch, so I want to buy an episode or two to see if it's any good, I no longer have the option of buying a season pass, and I'm stuck with the nuisance of manually downloading each episode.

[macfan881]

thats good news i bought a few tracks from the batman begins Soundtrack with a few pepsi credits i think or like leftover credit from a 15 dollar card eventually i wound up dl the whole abulm so this will be nice i hope they let every song be 99cents i wanna get the new Remix songs from Nightmare Before Christmas but its album only and i alredy have the full album

[Alexander]

I'll certainly be buying more iTunes songs if this happens. I can't count how many times the following has happened to me:

1) Oooh, I'd like that song. Totally worth 99 cents.
2) But wait, the album is $2 cheaper, and it's a decent album.
3) Eh, but it's not really worth it to me now. Maybe I'll want the album later.
4) Buy nothing, and forget about the song and album completely.

Of course, since I rarely buy albums from iTunes, I'd be better off just buying the songs anyway. But it's psychology, people. :)

Really, I hope iTunes will have an unlimited rental program some day. So much cheaper and more psychologically satisfying to me. Have you seen O'Reilly's new "Safari Library"? Unlimited access to over 4,000 tech books for $40/month. It's a thing of beauty. iTunes can be the same.

[jwdawso]

This would be great! I know sometimes I'm hesitant to buy a single (or 1 TV show episode) because I think about getting all. Also, there are collections, which are convenient for getting a nice group for a artist I recently discomvered I liked. But then I see I already have a few, so I don't feel like paying twice by getting the collection.

[brepublican]

Long overdue. This used to hold me back from purchasing singles. And I know a lot of friends who would illegally download the single, then wait for the album to become available...

Great move from Apple :)

[valiar]

Yawn.
$1 per track is still ridiculously overpriced.
The so called "FairPlay" DRM scheme is still limiting what I can do with the music I have paid so much for.
Wake me up when they drop the prices to reasonable levels (I would bother at 10-15 cents a track). Or when they will make it possible to re-download my purchased music, thus saving me from the necessity of making costly backups myself. Or when they will have files of better quality available (I am no "audiophile", but I can hear the difference between the CD and iTunes tracks most of the time).
I know that Apple is not to blame for incorporating DRM - it is the RIAA's greed.
But until it is fixed, I am getting my music from my local used CD store, thank you very much.

[rockthecasbah]

This is great, but the question is, would you get this same credit for songs you bought that are already in your library or would it be a "starting from now on" type of deal...

[Le Big Mac]

Probably right, but it arguably is a tying problem and best avoided.

If this were true, they would long ago have gotten in trouble for selling albums in the first place. Selling albums is not a new concept. Selling them on the internet is.

Makes sense to me. There's gotta be a catch, though. Seems too altruisitic a move by big corporate companies..


Sure, they can make more money. It makes sense too. Look at it this way. The singles people buy are the most "valuable" songs on the albums--the ones people are willing to pay a dollar for each. The rest of the tracks are the ones people aren't willing to pay a dollar for. But they might be willing to pay 50c or 25c for the song, or $2 for several songs. So they basically are taking each person's preferences adn saying, okay, you were willing to pay a dollar each for a couple of songs--we'll give you the rest at a bigger discount.

[Le Big Mac]

This is great, but the question is, would you get this same credit for songs you bought that are already in your library or would it be a "starting from now on" type of deal...

Wouldn't it likely look in your library and say "you have already purchased x songs from this album--your price is now 9.99-x"?

So it seems like it's retroactive for anyone who hasn't bought the album yet.

[iMikeT]

I hope this transitions to TV shows as well. I was stiffed when I bought episodes of a certain show before iTunes offered a season pass for it.

[iMeowbot]

Aren't iTMS songs unlimited burns anyways? Or was this changed?
They put a limit on how many times a playlist can be burned, but that's always been a low hurdle.

[Mezlan]

Maybe I am a n00b but I can no longer download single tracks or TV shows on iTunes...

:eek:

[Doctor Q]

Maybe I am a n00b but I can no longer download single tracks or TV shows on iTunes...What happens when you try?