Don't miss Joystiq's up-to-the-minute live coverage of E3!

Complete My Album is selling music

I was just as much a naysayer as Dave was when the service first came out (and for the record, I haven't used it all either), but apparently there are lots of people who do use Apple's "Complete My Album" service in iTunes -- the NYT says that it has become a prime selling tool, especially for bands and labels that pre-release singles from their album in a digital format. A whopping 52% of Lil Wayne's latest album sales on iTunes were sold through the "Complete My Album" feature. That means half the people who bought the album on iTunes had previously purchased one of the singles, and clicked through that way to buy the rest of their music.

And though neither Dave or I use "Complete My Album," that's a good sign for consumers, and a nice wake up call for the record industry -- the days of playing a song on the radio to up album sales are over. Digital releases are what sells music, and though "Complete My Album" currently only works on music previously purchased in the iTunes store, Apple could very easily extend that to all music in iTunes -- if you like a song that you've downloaded as a free single from the artist's website, it's just as easy to find music of theirs to buy in iTunes the same way.

We're done with a world where radio airplay determines what sells at the record store. These days, consumers are the ones who tell record makers what they want to buy -- it's already in their iTunes playlists.

Related Headlines

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

TUAW Features

back-to-school
Mac 101 ask-tuaw
Mac News
WWDC (251)
.Mac (66)
Accessories (652)
Airport (75)
Analysis / Opinion (1424)
Apple (1698)
Apple Corporate (580)
Apple Financial (200)
Apple History (51)
Apple Professional (54)
Apple TV (164)
Audio (450)
Bad Apple (131)
Beta Beat (155)
Blogging (87)
Bluetooth (19)
Bugs/Recalls (57)
Cult of Mac (879)
Deals (225)
Desktops (116)
Developer (282)
Education (110)
eMac (10)
Enterprise (147)
Features (412)
Freeware (399)
Gaming (397)
Graphic Design (38)
Hardware (1308)
Holidays (37)
Humor (589)
iBook (66)
iLife (240)
iMac (185)
Internet (340)
Internet Tools (1342)
iTS (982)
iTunes (823)
iWork (23)
Leopard (376)
Mac mini (112)
Mac Pro (54)
MacBook (206)
MacBook Air (83)
Macbook Pro (226)
MobileMe (47)
Multimedia (459)
Odds and ends (1490)
Open Source (282)
OS (940)
Peripherals (214)
Podcasting (183)
Podcasts (95)
Portables (198)
PowerBook (136)
PowerMac G5 (51)
Retail (612)
Retro Mac (50)
Rig of the Week (42)
Rumors (642)
Software (4460)
Software Update (428)
Steve Jobs (254)
Stocking Stuffers (50)
Surveys and Polls (98)
Switchers (114)
The Woz (35)
TUAW Business (257)
Universal Binary (281)
UNIX / BSD (61)
Video (908)
Weekend Review (84)
WIN Business (47)
Wireless (89)
Xserve (39)
iPhone/iPod News
iPhone (1789)
iPod Family (2119)
App Store (158)
SDK (29)
Mac Events
One More Thing (27)
Liveblog (2)
Other Events (226)
Macworld (489)
Mac Learning
AppleScript (4)
Ask TUAW (107)
Blogs (85)
Books (26)
Books and Blogs (62)
Cool tools (451)
Hacks (472)
How-tos (490)
Interviews (44)
Mods (191)
Productivity (591)
Reviews (114)
Security (167)
Terminal Tips (66)
Tips and tricks (575)
Troubleshooting (173)
TUAW Features
iPhone 101 (36)
TUAW Labs (4)
Blast From the Past (19)
TUAW Tips (150)
Flickr Find (38)
Found Footage (90)
Mac 101 (111)
TUAW Interview (31)
Widget Watch (198)
The Daily Best (1)
TUAW Faceoff (6)

RESOURCES

RSS NEWSFEEDS

Powered by Blogsmith

Sponsored Links

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) bloggers (30 days)

#BloggerPostsCmts
1Cory Bohon551
2Robert Palmer5339
3Steven Sande5015
4Mike Schramm250
5Erica Sadun231
6Michael Rose2328
7Dave Caolo210
8Giles Turnbull190
9Mat Lu188
10Christina Warren1328
11Brett Terpstra120
12TUAW Blogger70
13Victor Agreda, Jr.512
14Scott McNulty10
15Jason Clarke11

Featured Galleries

DNC Macs
Macworld 2008 Keynote
Macworld 2008 Build-up
Apple Vanity Plates
DiscPainter
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
Macworld Expo 2007 show floor
Apple Texas Hold 'Em
The Macworld Faithful in Line

 

    Most Commented On (7 days)

    Recent Comments

    More Apple Analysis

    More from AOL Money and Finance

    Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: