iTunes Song Purchasing Question

[richard13]

I'm not even sure if this belongs in this forum but here goes...

Often I find myself wanting to purchase a song but it is listed in multiple ways. For instance, the song is available as a single, as part of an album and as part of an EP. It's the same song, same length.

I want to add that in most cases I also do not care for the whole album, just a song or two. So I have gone the single route in the past. That said, there might be an advantage to getting the "version" that is part of the album somehow. Any ideas?

Which of these do you usually get?

 

[firedept]

Depends. If there are a few songs on the album and the price of buying them as singles is close to the album price, I will purchase the album. I usually come to like at least one or two more of the songs as an added bonus.

If it is one song only, then I buy the single. No sense in buying the album. But I will at least test drive all the songs on an album to see what they are like just to make sure of my decision.

I am not a fan of one hit wonders though. Most cases I prefer a musician because they have multiple hits, hence why I have so many albums.

 

[richard13]

Depends. If there are a few songs on the album and the price of buying them as singles is close to the album price, I will purchase the album. I usually come to like at least one or two more of the songs as an added bonus.

If it is one song only, then I buy the single. No sense in buying the album. But I will at least test drive all the songs on an album to see what they are like just to make sure of my decision.

I am not a fan of one hit wonders though. Most cases I prefer a musician because they have multiple hits, hence why I have so many albums.

I agree with your buying philosophy and used to do that when CDs and LPs were the big things. I typically tried to only buy albums with at least two or three known good songs on it. I have however bought some on a whim which later proved to be a poor choice so I do have my share of duds lying around.

The great thing about services like iTunes is that I no longer have to gamble on possibly getting a bad album but it also causes other problems like I mentioned above.

Do I buy the song as a single or as a track which is part of the album? Does it make a difference if it's the same "version" of the song?

I've done some more thinking about this and it may be that the album version has one advantage. If I later decide I like more songs from the album I can just finish buying the album. If I buy the single version and then the album later on I run the risk of possibly having two copies of the same song. At least that's how I think it would work. iTunes may be smarter than that. I don't know.

 

[eXan]

I've done some more thinking about this and it may be that the album version has one advantage. If I later decide I like more songs from the album I can just finish buying the album. If I buy the single version and then the album later on I run the risk of possibly having two copies of the same song. At least that's how I think it would work. iTunes may be smarter than that. I don't know.

Sometimes album songs are designed to flow with adjacent songs for seamless playback.

 

[firedept]

I've done some more thinking about this and it may be that the album version has one advantage. If I later decide I like more songs from the album I can just finish buying the album. If I buy the single version and then the album later on I run the risk of possibly having two copies of the same song. At least that's how I think it would work. iTunes may be smarter than that. I don't know.

iTunes is pretty smart. Matter of fact bought a single version from an album last night and when I looked at the album after purchase of single from it, it showed I had bought that single. It also changed the purchase price of the album to reflect that I had bought a single from it.

 

[Jessica Lares]

My opinion - Buy the album version unless you're buying the full single (meaning b-sides/remixes)

Because if you do end up buying more than one song off an album, it's going to look better in your iTunes. I have a few artists in my library that have 10-20 singles each. It's ridiculous.

 

[richard13]

My opinion - Buy the album version unless you're buying the full single (meaning b-sides/remixes)

Because if you do end up buying more than one song off an album, it's going to look better in your iTunes. I have a few artists in my library that have 10-20 singles each. It's ridiculous.

I think this makes the most sense to me. I'll just stick with the album version unless there's something special about the single (as you point out). Thanks!