Apple Supports Album Format

Apple is throwing its weight behind the music industry’s efforts to protect the album format by allowing fans to buy complete digital albums without having to pay again for songs they already own. The record industry is keen to maintain the profitable album format, which is under threat as users of web-based music download stores, such as Apple’s iTunes and Napster, prefer to buy individual songs rather than whole albums. Apple said it was introducing a Complete My Album service that offers customers who want to turn individual tracks into an album a 99-cent credit for every song they have already purchased from the album