Apple's 'Complete My Album' Feature Drops 180-Day Deadline for Upgrading

itunes 10 icon 150Yesterday, we noted that Apple had launched a new "Complete My Season Pass" feature for TV shows purchased through the iTunes Store, offering users who purchased individual episodes of a TV show season the ability to upgrade to a Season Pass at a discounted rate based on the amount of their individual purchases.

Apple today posted a new support document outlining an FAQ for the new service and explaining what content is and isn't eligible for the program. But in addition to the the Complete My Season Pass document, Apple also posted an updated version of its "Complete My Album" support document that offers a beneficial change for consumers.

Until now, users have generally had a window of 180 days from the date of their first individual track purchase from a given album within which they could upgrade at the discounted rate using the Complete My Album program. The current iTunes Store terms and conditions still make reference to that limit:

COMPLETE MY ALBUM ("CMA")

In some circumstances, you will have no more than 180 days from the time you acquire your first CMA-eligible song or video from a particular CMA-eligible album to accept that CMA offer, and upgrading previous purchases to iTunes Plus does not affect any such time limits.

But the updated support document posted by Apple today reveals a different answer, and it now appears that the 180-day deadline has been removed entirely.

How long do I have to take advantage of Complete My Album?

When you buy individual songs from any qualifying album, you can complete the album at any time, as long as the album is available for sale on the iTunes Store.

Many users taking advantage of the Complete My Album program obviously already do so within the previously-imposed 180-day window as they decide that they like certain songs enough to purchase the entire album. The lifting of the restriction will, however, still be of use for those who decide much later that they want to upgrade.

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature Single Camera 2 Redux

Top 5 Apple Products to Look Forward to in 2025

Friday December 20, 2024 2:22 pm PST by
It's looking like 2025 is going to be an important year for Apple, with the company planning to revamp the iPhone, push further into smart home products, and improve Apple Intelligence. There are tons of new products rumored for 2025, including new iPhones, M4 Macs, a smart home command center, and much more. We've highlighted the top five Apple products that will have the biggest impact in...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...

Top Rated Comments

Icaras Avatar
170 months ago
I am just curious how this actually works...never used it before.
Just buy a track from an album and the album will appear on your "Complete My Album" page, which can be found on the front page of the iTunes store (on the right side menu).

And basically, the price to purchase the rest of the album is reduced, minus the price of the track(s) you've purchased from that album.

For example, if you buy two $0.99 cent tracks from a $9.99 album, the price to purchase the rest of the album is reduced to $8.01, regardless of how many tracks there are in the album.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Icaras Avatar
170 months ago
Is it retroactive? If so, I'm happy.
It is because I see pretty much all the albums of which I've bought only select songs from years ago on my Complete My Album page.

iTunes keeps on getting better :D

Now all I want are Movies in the cloud, 1080p content with upgrade path, and ALAC music content with upgrade path and all will be perfect.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
morespce54 Avatar
170 months ago
It's a great news...
But AFAIC, the major problem with "Complete My Album" is not so much the 180 days limit as the "as long as the album is available for sale"...
I often got caught trying to complete an album which seems to be no longer available on iTS when in fact, the album has simply been renamed (i.e. "The Gretest Hits of XYZ" instead of "Greatest Hits: XYZ").
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
firestarter Avatar
170 months ago
I'm not sure why Apple (or most probably the record companies) ever restricted this.

One of the big issues record companies have had with the iTunes model is the ability folks now have to buy just a couple of good reacts off the album, rather than the whole lot (including all the filler tracks you'll never end up listening to). Result is a loss of revenue.

Why would the record companies want to continue with a policy that discourages people further from 'upgrading' to that whole album? Makes no sense.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Gubbz Avatar
170 months ago
I'd really like to see this as an extension to iTunes Match, there's lots of albums that I bought the CDs to years ago and since then they've been re-released with extras...
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Icaras Avatar
170 months ago
I just noticed too that if you buy a track thats featured in both a standard album and a deluxe album, the track shows as "purchased" on both albums and also shows both albums under "Complete My Album". Awesome!

Nice way of Apple to prevent penalizing customers for buying identical music across multiple versions of an album. :)

Edit: This policy doesn't seem to extend to "greatest hits" or "best of..." albums though, which makes sense since these are released by studios to generate more sales for the artist anyway.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)