Apple offers “Complete My Album” plan, will others respond?
Good news out of Cupertino today: you can now purchase a full album from the iTunes Music Store and receive a credit of $.99 for every single track you already bought on that album. Per the press release: "a user who’s already purchased three 99 cent singles anddecides to buy the corresponding $9.99 album would be able to downloadthe remaining songs to complete the album for just $7.02, withouthaving to buy the singles again."
Great news for the consumer, although I don’t think a vast majority of folks will take advantage of it. Chances are that they only bought the few tracks for a reason, i.e.: those were the tracks that they actually liked during the preview. The real question in my mind is: who’s going to follow suit? Will Microsoft react in the near future with the Zune Marketplace?
Now, does this extend to singles? I just bought the latest single from The Used, and their new album isn’t out yet. Will I be able to buy the album for the difference in price, or is the single a separate ‘release’?
I don’t like things like that. I think a band should be free to structure their music however they want, but give the user freedom in purchasing it how *they* want.
Then again, how much b2c business is based on what the consumer actually wants?