Apple Quietly Ends Free iTunes 'Single of the Week' Promotion After 11 Years

Well hey.....times are tough.

Got a new CFO in town, eh?

No need to give out free singles when they realize people aren't "buying" music anymore. Full itunes streaming is coming soon I bet.

In all these years, I only got 3 free singles... and the unwanted U2 album (but that wasn't my choice). So, it's not something I'm going to miss.
Too bad for those artists trying to get more attention, I think that's the only downside.

With no "12 days of Christmas" and now this, they must be saving up to be making the 12" Macbook Air real affordable

Tim must still be upset about the whole U2 Songs of Innocence pushback...

They are probably sick of having to be insulted for giving out some little things for free.

I used to download the free songs, but after a while realized that I almost never liked the songs, rated them as 1 star and lost them in my library. It's been a year or so since I even thought of the free song. I wonder if this is also true for many other users rendering the freebie no longer essential. I also wonder how Apple was compensating the artist and if there is some issue in the contracts. My final wonder of this morning is how the streaming has affected the need for a free song as a way to discover new music/artists.

I wonder a lot.

Aww. Got a lot of neat songs in this promotion that lead to me buying the album, and the album after, and the album after, etc.

Hopefully Starbucks still does theirs.

All about their margins, it was hurting their bottom line. :rollseyes:

I discovered them about five years and because of the free singles, dicovered several bands that I enjoyed and bought music on iTunes.

I forgot about those free singles about a year or two later.

This kind of makes me sad, even though I haven't regularly downloaded the tracks for awhile. When it first started, I always grabbed the songs and actually still listen to some of them pretty regularly.

Wonder if they'll stop doing stuff like the Starbucks free songs too?

To be honest?

I really liked many of the singles of the week, years ago. They had a lot of material from alternative rock artists who were "up and coming", with the free single occasionally winding up a big hit.

More recently though? It hasn't done much for me. I like a wide variety of music so if I bother to download a track, chances are pretty good I won't strongly dislike it. I'll give it the occasional listen and keep it in my collection. But it's just not a big deal to me anymore. (I'm trying to have complete albums in my iTunes library, and all of these random singles kind of mess that up.)

Cuban Missles said:

I used to download the free songs, but after a while realized that I almost never liked the songs, rated them as 1 star and lost them in my library. It's been a year or so since I even thought of the free song. I wonder if this is also true for many other users rendering the freebie no longer essential. I also wonder how Apple was compensating the artist and if there is some issue in the contracts. My final wonder of this morning is how the streaming has affected the need for a free song as a way to discover new music/artists.

I wonder a lot.

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Apple is so damn greedy. It would be nice if they appreciated their customers.

Non-hardware examples;

No 12 days of Christmas. Not a huge deal but no real explanation behind it.

iTunes prices are ridiculous. Yes, they do sales occasionally. But I don't need all the Harry Potter movies for $55. I would like to see some older movies for less than $14.99 occasionally. Perhaps a price more competitive with Blu-Rays or Amazon.

$3.99 and $4.99 to rent a movie? For 24 hours? C'mon. That's ridiculous when there is a Redbox in every McDonalds in the US.

I really wanted to own a copy of The Prestige. I figured iTunes was an easy choice. Until the movie was $17.99. It's $9.99 on Blu-Ray.

I understand there is no need to push product since these files are not taking up any real estate but a sale or competitive prices would be nice.

We're all in the ecosystem, just throw us a bone with some incentives and real sales.

This is coming on the heals of an unfortunate incident last night in which I was unable to stream Capt America on my Apple TV (a movie I purchased on iTunes), but the Netflix app on my Apple TV worked fine. I just remember when it felt like Apple cared about their few customers instead of ripping off all of their customers.

/end rant

Nothing new here, lots of things have been ended quietly by apple.

jmcrutch said:

No need to give out free singles when they realize people aren't "buying" music anymore. Full itunes streaming is coming soon I bet.

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I agree with this. Why end it now when there are rumors of revamping iTunes and reports of lower download sales unless they had something they believed to be better.

Never once saw a song that interested me that was free

Mixed feelings on this. As a person who actually buys music, I have found some good artists this way I'd likely not have listened to otherwise.

On the flip, with iTunes match. Spotify, etc.. I find new music anyway.

It is what it is.

honestly, I already totally forgot about that free downloads. I used them long time ago, but they were rarely my taste and I stopped even looking for them - there are so many other ways theses days to discover new music - and also with streaming taking over, it is no surprise.

Didn't they spend $100 million on giving out U2's album for free?

That's probably what killed it.

Thanks, Bono. Thanks from the artists who could have used the exposure, too.

lars666 said:

They are probably sick of having to be insulted for giving out some little things for free.

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Yep, there's no pleasing some people, they just throw it right back at Apple's face. Good for them for stopping free gifts.

It's not being 'dropped'.

It's just being rebranded into a new Music offering through their Beats platform. You will once again get 'free' singles, however it will be done through their Beats promotion. Just be patient until Apple roles this out.

Too bad

I actually discovered some music I really like, even love in some cases, with this program. Sorry to see it go. Can't see how the U2 pushback had anything to do with this decision as these free songs weren't forced on anyone. Most likely it conflicts with some aspect of Apple's upcoming Beats offering.