Today, iTunes launched “Complete My Album,” a feature offering customers 99 cents for every track they previously bought when used toward the purchase of the complete album. In other words, if Jane iTunes buys her four favorite songs from Modest Mouse’s newest album for 99 cents apiece, she will only be charged $6.03 instead of $9.99 if she decides to purchase the complete record. One draw back, the “Complete My Album” feature only applies to songs purchased in the past 180 days. But some bloggers have found more to complain about than shelf life, while others thoroughly embrace the new technology. In light of the recent developments regarding Digital Rights Management (DRM) encoded music, specifically Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ call to abandon it, many criticize a further movement toward DRM music distribution and that visible lack of energy applied to a DRM-free consumption platform. Others, well, they’re filling holes in their music collections.
Here’s what iTunes fanatics, critics, and everything in between have to say:
“I was actually looking for this sort of feature just recently. This move should strengthen the iTMS business model.” — ndmckinney.net
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“Can you tell me why Apple would think I would want to waste my money buying the whole album when the whole reason iTunes is so successful is because they allow us to easily buy singles any time? I know I’m a Apple whore, but I ain’t stupid!” — Mr. Gary Lee, mrgarylee.com
“Convenient, but no cheaper, in fact I notice that some albums have actually gone up in price, so it will actually cost me more now to complete the album than it would have done to buy it outright back when I bought a single track.” — Frodomorris, frodomorris.livejournal.com
“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” — JK, jkontherun.blogs.com
“Why wasn’t this already here from the very beginning?” — Louis Gray, theappleblog.com
“Gee wilickers, this will certainly convince me to stop getting non-DRM’d music for free, and start paying for DRM’d music…not to mention support that splendid RIAA.” — Morph3us, gizmodo.com
Talk: Will iTunes’ “Complete My Album” initiative make any difference in music consumption?
