[Infowarrior] - Apple iTunes offers 'Complete My Album'

[Richard Forno]

Thursday, March 29, 2007 · Last updated 9:46 a.m. PT
Apple iTunes offers 'Complete My Album'

By MAY WONG
AP TECHNOLOGY WRITER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1700AP_Apple_ITunes_Albums.html

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Apple Inc., the company that popularized selling songs
online for 99 cents apiece, now hopes to buoy interest in albums, giving
customers credit for purchases of full albums from which they have bought
individual tracks.

Apple introduced the "Complete My Album" feature Thursday on its iTunes
Store. It now gives a full credit of 99 cents for every track the user
previously purchased and applies it toward the purchase of the complete
album.

For instance, most albums on iTunes cost $9.99 so a customer who already
bought three tracks can download the rest of the album for $7.02.

Previously, users who bought singles and later opted to buy the album had to
pay the full price of the album and ended up with duplicates of those songs.

The album price reduction is good for only 180 days after the initial
purchase of individual tracks.

Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes, said the new feature should help
eliminate the resistance that customers, including himself, may have felt in
buying an album after they had already bought a single from it.

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"Once we bought a song, we wondered why we had to buy it again if we wanted
the album," Cue said. "We hope it helps us sell more songs ultimately, and
from the customer point of the view, we think it's the right thing to do."

About 45 percent of the nearly 2.5 billion songs sold on iTunes were
purchased as albums, Cue said.

For a limited period of 90 days, Apple said it will make the "Complete My
Album" offer retroactive to users who purchased tracks dating back to the
launch of the iTunes Store four years ago.

Apple dominates the online music market and is a leading music retailer
worldwide behind only Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Best Buy Co. and Target Corp.

Shares of Apple climbed 1 cent to $93.25 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq
Stock Market.