Complete My Album Is Incomplete

Filed in archive Apple , Commentary , Major Labels , Marketing on March 30, 2007

This post is part of a series that analyzes Apple's Complete My Album offering.

1. Apple Pimps The Single
2. Complete My Album Is Incomplete
3. Complete My Album Is For Singles
4. Complete My Album's False Promise
5. Albums & Fries

With Complete My Album the music industry recognizes that people primarily buy singles, not albums. It eliminates senseless "double-dipping" that charges people again for a song they already bought.

There are two specific benefits

> It reduces the cost of an album buy. I don't have to pay twice for both the single and album.

> It incents an album buy. If I've already bought a few singles, for a modest price of a few dollars more I can buy the entire album.

Complete My Album is a positive service, but quite limited and so far from complete. Its only feature is the elimination of the double charge for customers who buy the same exact song as part of an album. It does not cover the same song bought in other stores or in other formats. It provides no feature that otherwise makes single or album pricing or packaging more attractive.

The next post discusses how Complete My Album affects consumer behavior beyond the obvious benefits listed here.