Digital Music Frontier

Much has been made recently of Apple’s decision to let iTunes users ‘Complete My Album.’ I actually don’t think that it will have much of an impact, if any.

Essentially, what Apple is offering through the iTunes Music Store, is for consumers who purchased individual songs to have the option to buy the album for the same rate as they would have if they had bought the entire album from the beginning. In other words, you won’t have to buy the same song(s) a second time, if you decide later that you want the whole thing.

It seems most of the industry believes this idea will encourage more people to buy the full album, instead of just the one or two songs that they like.

The industry believes that, as it stands right now, downloads of single songs from iTunes are hurting sales of entire albums, thereby depressing profits.

I’m not sure I agree with that theory.

Last night, I looked at the albums I could theoretically ‘complete.’ They are,

Outkast, The Love Below/Speakerbox
The Darkness, One Way Ticket to Hell
Billy Idol, Greatest Hits
The Step Daddy, Hitman Sammy Sam
Enigma, Love Sensuality Devotion

As you can see, it is not the most impressive list.

After taking the Outkast album out of consideration, because I got the rest of the album from friends, there is only one album I would consider completing, which is The Darkness’ One Way Ticket To Hell. And after listening to the three songs I did download from that album, it probably falls in the ‘eh’ category.

I have no idea what The Step Daddy is, and absolutely no motivation to find out (I’m guessing someone convinced me of it’s greatness at a party).

And the Billy Idol and Enigma purchases were obviously made at times of great weakness.

Also, brought to my attention (thanks to Digital Audio Insider), is the fact that this new option only really makes a difference for albums of more than ten songs. That’s where the discount actually kicks in.

The Darkness album, because it contains only ten songs, is a good example of this. I can buy the rest of the individual songs one by one and it will cost me the same, as if I had bought the entire album to begin with, or if I use the ‘complete my album’ feature.

Yes, it’s a little easier to use the new feature because you only have to click one button, instead of nine, but it’s not anymore cost-efficient.

Are there people, unlike me though, where this might encourage them to ‘complete the album’? Probably.

But, is this the magic bullet that the music industry is looking for? Not likely.

I will say, however, that this is a nice option to have. It does give iTunes users more flexibility with their purchases, which is definitely a good thing. And it is one more sign of Apple continuing to push the envelope and look for more ways to make the consumer’s experience better (now, if we could just do something about the DRM and interoperability problems…)

But I don’t think people like me, who bought Enigma’s Return to Innocence in moments of desperation, are going to change their minds and, ‘complete the album.’

It is far more likely, that I would buy Whoomp There It Is or Who Let The Dogs Out? Which is to say, it’s not very likely at all…

Actually, now that I think about it…