"Album Only"...defeats the purpose of iTunes?

[adrenaline]

Howdy! I was channel surfing earlier and I saw the music video for "Vindicated" by Dashboard Confessional and decided whoa I'm going to go get it off iTunes! But no...the only way to get the song is to pay for the whole album. This isn't the first time I've been stumped by this but I just hate it and wanted to see what everyone else thought. I mean...to me the purpose of iTunes is to buy those one or two songs on a CD that are actually good instead of being suckered into buying the entire album...

[pdjudd]

its marketing. plain and simple. alot of times the artist and their managemene dont want to loose cd sales entirely by making teh really big single being available online when they.

Again, not all groups do this, they want to ensure cd sales to a degree..

[studogvetmed]

I wouldn't say this defeats the purpose of iTunes, sure it sucks and is unfortunate, but it does not defeat the purpose. The purpose of iTunes is to make available digital music. iTunes does this, and sometimes some restrictions are in place. Click on the samples of the other songs on the album, maybe you'll be surprised and purchusing the entire album will be with it. Particularily with an act like Dashboard Confessionals you can't be too suckered, that's some good music all around usually.

Just my opinion, though I agree it would be nice to download any track single you want, I don't think the fact that you can't in some cases, defeats iTunes purpose.

[PATB]

I agree with adrenaline.

If I like the whole album, I would rather get the CD than get the album from iTunes. As far as I am concerned, the whole purpose of iTunes is to provide me good singles from crappy albums. But that is just me!

[asteve52]

This situation annoys me too.
Just recently I wanted the Antal Dorati version of the Tchaikovsky 1812 overture on Mercury Living Presence but was disappointed to find that not only was it an album only track but there were 2 other album only tracks as well.
Adding insult to injury, the album cost £7.99 to purchase which on the face of it is quite reasonable, except for the fact that there are only 6 tracks on the album at £0.79p each. If I'm not mistaken this adds up to £4.74.
Why am I required to pay an extra £3.25???