How come there are so many partial albums on iTunes store?

wrong robotwrong robot
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
I have been browsing the itunes store A LOT, I haven't purchased anything, and won't till I have an iPod. But the store is really neat. I was wondering however, how come there are so many partial albums. It doesn't make sense that they might have 2 complete albums from one artist then only have 3 tracks off of that artist's 3rd album.



Also, sometimes they have like 15/16 tracks...and are missing like one :30 second track. What gives?



Does anyone know how apple processes and uploads songs?



It seems like they should be(for the most part) ripping cds and uploading their songs. How do they miss certain songs?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    Maybe a 30-second song for $0.99 would cause an uproar with costomers? They may not want to deal with that problem if they signed a contract with the BIG-5 to sell all single songs for $0.99.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    frawgzfrawgz Posts: 547member
    I don't think the process is as automated as you think it is. First, assuming Apple's doing the ripping, I doubt it's their fault if there are any tracks missing. It likely has to do with any conditionals that the labels make in order for that album to be on the iTMS.



    "You can put this album on the store as long as you don't put these songs in that album." Or "You can put this song up as long as it's only available through an album purchase." Or "You can put this album up as long as the songs are only available through single purchases."



    Now that CD Baby has posted a cap (since removed) of Apple's discussion with the indie labels, though, it seems more like Apple has given the labels the burden of encoding the songs. At least it's doing that for the independents. In which case, if a track is missing, you can be sure it's because it was deliberately omitted for some reason or another.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    The record labels are doing the encoding? Who knows what kind of spyware/tracking technologies are in those files! (It's the RIAA for crying out loud.) I've always pictured a team of apple people doing the encoding.



    OFF TOPIC: Where did that gremlin come from? (Top of the page)
  • Reply 4 of 12
    keyboardf12keyboardf12 Posts: 1,379member
    the record compaines are doing the ripping from what i have read.
  • Reply 5 of 12
    frawgzfrawgz Posts: 547member
    Indeed. Apparently, there's a Music Store Encoding program that runs on Mac OS X. I don't suppose we're supposed to know this since the article was pulled from CD Baby.
  • Reply 6 of 12
    thegeldingthegelding Posts: 3,230member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Ebby

    The record labels are doing the encoding? Who knows what kind of spyware/tracking technologies are in those files! (It's the RIAA for crying out loud.) I've always pictured a team of apple people doing the encoding.



    OFF TOPIC: Where did that gremlin come from? (Top of the page)



    jonathan has a lord of the rings thing going today....my precious and all that...



    g
  • Reply 7 of 12
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Wrong Robust

    Does anyone know how apple processes and uploads songs?



    It seems like they should be(for the most part) ripping cds and uploading their songs. How do they miss certain songs?



    If a song isn't there it's because the owner doesn't want it there. And, as stated before, there is an OS X iTMS encoding .app that the label runs on their own machines.
  • Reply 8 of 12
    wrong robotwrong robot Posts: 3,907member
    That's a shame. I was talking to someone the other day who has already spent about $100 bucks on the iTunes store. He said that he would have spent A LOT more, but he didn't want to d/l incomplete albums, and he didn't want to d/l just a couple tracks, and then have to get hte whole album later(if it did ever get completely uploaded.



    seems like a really poor way to do things. Especially if the album is only missing one or two songs, even if they are very short.



    oh well, I hope that Apple does what they can to serve more complete albums.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    womblingfreewomblingfree Posts: 206member
    Vegemite????



    Marmite is the superior choice.
  • Reply 10 of 12
    mac man 020581mac man 020581 Posts: 632member
    How come with some partial albums you can't purchase all the songs in the partial album, but you can only buy the single songs from within that album? Strange...
  • Reply 11 of 12
    sikkdsikkd Posts: 47member
  • Reply 12 of 12
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by serrano

    And, as stated before, there is an OS X iTMS encoding .app that the label runs on their own machines.



    In those minutes from the meeeting with the indies, jobs said that app would be available in 90 days, I believe. I'm not convinced that the big 5 labels have done their own encoding - that may just be for the indies. And I believe that Jobs said something about Apple doing the encoding - maybe it was in the presentation, or somewhere on Apple.com.
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