The music store online iTunes has a new tool, included in the service in order to boost the sale of complete music albums, said the Associated Press. The service is called Complete my Album and allows customers to transform their individual songs into a complete disc at a reduced price.
In this sense, when users decide to download an album, Apple offers a discount of $ 0.99 for each song belonging to the disc, previously downloaded. That is, if a customer has already purchased a song and chooses to download the entire album whose price is set at $ 9.99, they only have to pay $ 9.
However, the company says that users will only be entitled to this discount advantage during the first 180 days after purchasing the first song.
The new service is yet another strategy by Apple to find new ways to profit since the digital music trade has generated revenues below what would be needed to compensate for the poor results of CD sales.
Data from Nielsen SoundScan point to a 10 percent decrease in record sales in the North American market only in the first quarter of this year. The consultant’s calculations take the same period last year as a benchmark and reveal that despite sales of digital albums having doubled, CD sales have dropped 20 percent.
ITunes has accounted for more than 70 percent of digital music sales in the United States, by the way, since its launch in 2003, Apple’s service has sold more than 2 billion songs.
The success of the online store is largely due to the partnership that Steve Jobs has established with big names in the music industry, including Warner Music, Universal Music, EMI and Sony BMG Music Entertainment who share the works of their artists with the company.
Related News:
2007-03-12 – European Commissioner says exclusive link between iTunes and iPod is not positive
2006-06-09 – Apple pressed for exclusivity between iPod and iTunes
2006-05-03 – Apple guarantees price maintenance on iTunes
