Apple offers new iTunes deal
2007-03-30 13:31
San Francisco - Apple unveiled on Thursday an iTunes online music store offer aimed at enticing people into buying complete albums instead of separate song tracks.
Apple touted Complete My Album as a "groundbreaking" service that discounts album prices by amounts already paid for separate tracks downloaded from iTunes.
The Cupertino, California, maker of iPod MP3 players set the industry standard of selling individual songs in digital format on the internet for 99 cents each at iTunes.
"Complete My Album is a wonderful new way that iTunes helps customers grow and enjoy their music collections," said Apple vice president Eddy Cue.
"Music fans can now round out their music collections by upgrading their singles into complete albums with just one click, and get full credit for those songs they have previously purchased from iTunes."
Complete My Album gives customers 180 days after first purchasing individual songs to buy the rest of the albums at reduced prices.
"ITunes continues to revolutionise the digital music industry by offering music fans innovative ways to explore and enjoy new music," said Sony BMG Music Entertainment president of Global Digital Business Thomas Hesse.
"With Complete My Album, iTunes is giving music fans the best of both worlds - the ability to discover great new music by buying just the single and a credit toward the purchase of the complete album."
US sales of digitised albums online dropped from 119 million during the first three months of 2006 to 99 million during the same period this year, according to figures released last week by industry tracker Nielsen SoundScan.
Meanwhile, sales of individual songs in digital format on the internet rose from 242 million tracks during those months last year to 288 million this year, according to SoundScan.