Album Only. Why?

This is not so much a question as it is a complaint.
Why should I or anyone else, be (somewhat)forced to purchase an ENTIRE album on iTunes in the case that we only want one or two songs? I mean, seriously? If I only like one song on that album, why can't I just buy that song. It's not my fault that the artist couldn't fill the rest of that album with half-way decent material. It would be pretty messed up if I went to the gas station to put $10 of fuel and the guy tells me that I can only fill up.
Apple, if your listening...please do away with this. If I want that single song that I can't download legally from you guys, then I'll search elsewhere. Both you and the label lose on that.
Anyone else feel this way?

In addition to the other comments I've noticed this often happens with longer tracks or bonus tracks not available on an earlier release. Albums with a few tracks are also likely to be Album Only. One presumes this is to enforce the Album price, after all if you could buy the tracks cheaper one by one then why would you pay more. I seem to recall years ago seeing Mike Oldfield's Amarok as a single track or an album from the MSN store with two different prices! As ever, shop around and vote with your wallet.
tt2

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Songs to buy with complete album only, why?

I wanted to buy a song (Kraftwerk - Computer Liebe) in the iTunes store. Unfortunately you can get it only if you buy the complete album (Computerwelt). This is not what I want, so I bought it from another online music store in Germany. In the end Apple lost a deal. Like DRM, the restriction to buy the complete album, does not make sense, as there are other shops where you can get what you want.

One suspects that part of Apple's original strategy for keeping the iTunes store (relatively) simple to administer was the fixed price per track, irrespective of duration or indeed popularity. While this model works fine for the typical rock & pop tracks of 3-4 minutes and albums of 8-12 tracks it starts to look unfair with longer tracks. Take at the extreme an album like Mike Oldfield's Amarok with a single track. Given the choice to buy the track at 79p or the album at £7.99 which would you choose? No suprise then that this is presented as an Album Only purchase. In addition to any specific restrictions that might be imposed by the artist or label where one track is significantly longer than others it seems that the store will only allow it as part of a whole album purchase. I note that, with the example you give, Amazon allow the purchase of this track individually whereas iTunes does not. One of the changes that Apple have signaled is variable pricing which may in future mean that longer tracks will be made available for an extra cost.
tt2

Only one track is downloaded per album on itunes on my iphone 5. Every time I download a new track it deletes the previously downloaded track on that album. Why is this happening and how can I switch it off?

Only one track is downloaded per album on itunes on my iphone 5. Every time I download a new track it deletes the previously downloaded track on that album. Why is this happening and how can I switch it off?

Most YouTube content requires the Flash plugin. Sometimes it's necessary to uninstall then reinstall that plugin.
Uninstall the Flash plugin then reinstall new > Troubleshoot Flash Player | Mac OS
Very important to uninstall the currently installed plugin first.
Now launch Safari and try a video.
If you have the ClickToFlash extension installed, that can prevent Flash based video from streaming. It can also be installed as a plugin in /Library/Internet-Plug-Ins.
And check to see if Safari is running in 32 bit mode. Right or control click the Safari icon in your Applications folder then click Get Info. If the box next to: Open in 32 bit mode is selected, deselect, quit then relaunch Safari.
You may also need to delete the cache associated with Safari .
Open the Finder. From the Finder menu bar click Go > Go to Folder
Type or copy/paste: ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari
Click Go the move the Cache.db file from the com.apple.Safari folder to the Trash.
Quit and relaunch Safari. Try a video.

HT201077 Why can't I access my iCloud albums from apps on my mobile devices?When I go to access my albums from any app on my phone or iPad, I cannot access the iCloud albums, only the albums synced with iTunes/iPhoto manually. This is frustrating because

When I go to access my albums from any app on my phone or iPad, I cannot access the iCloud albums, only the albums synced with iTunes/iPhoto manually. This is frustrating because I cannot add to those albums from mobile device, I have to add to them during a Mac sync. I would like to be able to use my iCloud albums to organize my photos but if I cannot access them from apps it seems pointless. I will end up having to maintain both an iCloud library and a separate iPhoto library which is more work that seems necessary. I want everything easy to organize and access. It seems like in this age where most people are more likely to use their mobile devices than their Macs (and some do not even own Macs) that there should be a mobile solution. Hopefully I am simply without a clue and you folks can help me out with a fix or a source of info as a solution. I have not found answers yet.

gail from maine wrote:
Hi keriah,
When you go to Settings>Pages, do you have the "Use iCloud" option turned on?
Cheers,
GB
That was it! Thanks!!!

Photo problems using "copy selected albums only"

No one seems to be able to help me at Apple to figure out why if I have PhotoShop Album 2.0 that I can't get the IPod to let me have the choice of "copy selected albums only". The only choice it allows is to copy all photos and I don't want to do that. Would appreciate any help anyone can give me.

I am not sure what you mean by "set up". It is on the computer I am using with my Ipod and really don't know how the Ipod and it connect/talk to each other. Thanks for at least asking/responding to my question. I have figured out how to get photos from a folder but really would have liked to have used the album feature as they are all organized and I have to mess with them to get them to come out in the folder. Thanks for your time. Nancy

Playig a single album only in Coverflow-mode

Here's the problem: I listen to albums and albums only. Choosing one in column view has always played the chosen album only. This doesn't seem to apply to Album Cover View or Coverflow, instead iTunes plays your entire library from that album on and it's truly aggravating. Imagine you've just listened to some ambient music and suddenly your speedmetal album blasts in. What a nice way to relax. I've searched high and low but there seems to be no solution to this. Am I missing something incredibly simple here? The only way I've found is to do a search for a particular album until I have just that album showing in Coverflow, but this makes no sense. Shouldn't I be able to just click on an album cover and have just that album played instead of making a tedious search that I have to get exactly right ? Please tell me if I've missed something totally obvious here.
iMac 24" Intel Core 2 Duo Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Thanks R J S, I've tried it but it's just not for me. You can also make a search (which has to be quite precise) to leave only that single album showing in Cover Flow, and it works of course, but both methods are so counterintuitive. A simple double-click on album cover should and has to do the trick. Why it does not is way beyond me. I simply can't understand why Apple assumes nobody's listening to albums anymore. I'd need 468 playlists to cover all my single albums. This of course makes using Cover Flow totally useless. It's so weird that the main and most natural method of listening to music gets so botched up. It goes totally against the grain of any music lovers listening habits and I'm so tired of waiting for this to be remedied.
I guess this going to be yet another waiting game. Meawhile I've sent feedback to Apple via iTunes. I suggest everybody else annoyed by this problem to do the same.

ITunes store and the "Album Only" stuff

Come on iTunes. Why do you have these ridiculous "album only" offerings.
THE WHOLE point of iTunes is to be able to pick one song from an album if that is all you want. Why should I be forced to buy a whole album for ONE song?
Who do I complain to??

cjelephant wrote:
Who do I complain to??
You do not waste your time complaining to anyone. You check out other online music download stores. I have on occasion found that tracks sold as "Album Only" at the iTunes Store are available as individual tracks at Amazon.com. You might get lucky.

Anyone wonder who picks which songs are available to buy vs. "Album Only"?

A little something i just sent to itunes customer service. I'm really getting tires of being told the one or two songs I actually want are only available by purchasing the entire album.
Hello,
I have a question regarding the selection of songs process used by Apple when setting up Itunes Music store for a new album/product. Could you please explain in detail why it seems that albums are always set up to force paying customers to buy entire albums for a scant few songs that are actually wanted. Generally when a popular artist is featured on a song, or one that seems like it will be very, very popular, Apple stoops to such disdainful measures to make it impossible to buy as a stand-alone song. To me that is just plain greedy because we know what you are doing.
It seems that with some forethought to it's future busines, perhaps Apple could make a truly customer oriented decision and make all songs available at any time. Customers would be happy and you would make up the profits on "Good Will" of giving the customers what they want, rather than leaving them ****** off. They might just start going to Walmart or Target to buy the whole CD instead, if they have no other alternative and leave you in the dust.
Thank you for your attention, and for doing the right thing.
I look forward to your announcement in the near future that all songs will be available.

Ah yes, this one is quite simple, at least the "why" part; the "who" is likely the copyright holder (aka the record company). As for "why", well it's pretty simple, some albums have an obvious smash hit, and the remainder of the album (obviously in the view of the record company) may not be as, well, "exciting" to the consumer. So to prevent their investment in a record from turning into an investment of one song, they will make that one song "album only" so as to increase sales. Pretty dastardly; really violates the spirit of why Napster hit a chord with people to begin with: WE DON'T ALWAYS WANT THE WHOLE ALBUM FOR JUST ONE SONG!
I advocate to anyone who will listen to NOT buy any song/album from an album that contains an "album only" song. If you follow like sheep into that trap, then before you know it the record companies will make more and more of their offerrings "album only" and we'll be right back to where we started with traditional CD sales.
If you are forced to buy the album to get that one song, then don't buy it on iTunes, go buy the actual CD or from some other legal source. If enough people refuse to buy those "album only" albums, then the record companies will give up on that tactic.
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HT201272 how do i access the cloud i have downloaded some tracks on some albums but they dont play so i deleted them i went to download them again but they are album only tracks so itunes store wont let me how can i get my tracks back? please help

how do i get tracks back that i deleted that are album only tracks, i downloaded it and it would not play now i cant re download it please help

About a minute and a half into some tracks it skips to the next. Not on all the tracks but on most of them.
Try again, just redownloading the tracks which are skipping. (The servers for the Store seem to have been a bit extra-cranky with this over the past day or so in particular ... some folks have had to try redownloading again a couple of times.)

Help!? cant gift songs due to error message album only - but they are not!

Hi!
I recently updated my itunes and now 9 out of 10 songs I try to gift won't as they are apparantly 'album only' - but they aren't!
anyone know if this is solvable? Or is it a glitch with itunes and vista - but I had no problems till I said yes to latest version of itunes!
many thanks

Contact iTS support about it.
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/store/
They'll probably need to know the exact track names. You can right-click on tracks in ITS, "Copy iTunes store URL", and paste them into your message.

I have several Albums in my Photo app. Is there a way to download all contents in one album only to my computer?

I have several Albums in my Photo section in my iphone.
I want to be able to transfer a specific album only when syncing to my computer. So that all the pictures are already organized in one album when I transfer it.
Is there a way to do this?
Thanks!

Please, please, please... I wonder if the solution of deleting the Podcast App and using the Music App again would work. My favorite sports radio station splits up their podcasts by DJ (logical), but I want to listen to all podcasts from one day from all DJs. No longer automatic :(
Apple developers, if you read this please add this feature - you had it in Music App.

"Album Only LP" not showing up in LIbrary

I purchased an ablum which has the "LP" icon in the upper right corner in the store.
The first item on contents list is: "Group Therapy (Deluxe Version) - iTunes LP" ... and then it says "album only" to the right.
I've redownloaded this album a couple of times already, trying to get whatever this "album only" item is (it doesn't appear to be a song).
1. What is the item? Is this the expanded Album experience I see advertised? Because when I play these songs, they play in basic format. There's nothing deluxe about it.
2. How do I obtain an album-only item when I've downloaded the complete album 3 times?
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/group-therapy-deluxe-version/id440649999

Close iTunes, delete the hidden file called sentinel from the iTunes folder where your library files are stored and then restart. This should force iTunes to run an integrity check on the database which ought to resolve the problem.
tt2

From Cover Flow repeat / play album only?

Is there a way to have iTunes play/repeat just an album when selected via Cover Flow?
(It's probably just me not seeing the option.)
When one selects an album via 'Grid View -> Albums' only that album and its songs get selected. That's exactly what I'd like to have when selecting the album via Cover Flow.
However if that an album is selected via Cover Flow, this album and all songs following are listed.
Playing the album ends up playing everything... Yet I'd only like to repeat-play that album.
Checking/Unchecking all songs individually (even via shift-cmd) to select just the album songs for play is not my idea of a good solution.

There are two ways I know, but one is clunky and the other could be very time-consuming to set up.
1) Make sure all the tracks in your library are unchecked. Then, check only the tracks in the album you want to play. You can use Uncheck All to do the first part, and then select the album tracks, right-click on one of them and click Check Selected. Or you can click the checkmarks on individually. Then, if you select the first album track and click Play iTunes will play through all the tracks that are checked and then stop. I haven't tried doing this with repeat, but it should repeatedly play the album tracks in sequence.
2) You could build a playlist for every album you want to play through. Then, to play the album play the playlist.
Unfortunately, iTunes does not provide a "play album" control. Perhaps Apple sees playing albums through in this manner like CDs or (worse) vinyl LPs as hopelessly 20th Century and something to be discouraged?

ITunes 7 not downloading album only material

I just purchased an album, and the digital booklet and one of the songs--the "album only" items--hung in the download. I clicked on the "Downloads" link, and the window said that it had downloaded the full MB but it said it was still "processsing."
After this had gone on several minutes, I decided to close iTunes. I got a dialog box that basically said I would be prompted to continue downloading when I reopened iTunes. However, when I reopened iTunes, no such thing happened. Now I have no way to retrieve this material. Help!!

Your welcome, just remeber if a download doesn't finish for whatever reason ( PC crashed, rebooted, lost electic to your house, Internet connection went down, Dog chewed the DSL line in half ect ect ect) just goto store>Check for purchases to start it up again.
Alot of people had this issue this summer where they was online downloading and those "Supraise" thunderstorms popped up and knocked out power for a min or 2

Cannot download Album Only Songs

Hi, can you help. I paid to download an album but now when I try to individually download songs I cannot download ones that are album only songs. What should I do?

I've just purchaces an album and having the same problem. Emailed support but received no reply. My previous album I managed to download with no problem, however if I try and download a track from this same album I now get the above error.

Album Only. Why?

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