According to The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.), Apple’s iTunes Store is offering a new service, “Complete My Album,” that allows consumers to purchase at a reduced price the remaining songs from an album for which they’ve already bought single songs on iTunes.
“The idea here is simple — once you bought singles from an album, we’ll give you credit for it,” Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president for iTunes said.
Mr. Cue said about 55% of the music bought through iTunes is sold as individual tracks, a figure that has been consistent since iTunes was introduced.
As part of the service, Apple is giving consumers a motivation to act soon to buy the remaining songs on albums that they don’t already own: The offer is good for 180 days after customers purchase individual songs from an album. For iTunes songs bought before yesterday, Apple is giving customers 90 days from yesterday to purchase the corresponding full albums.