1) When a band releases singles prior to the album release, one at a time, and with each single they ask you to pay just a bit more by adding on the song you just purchased a month earlier.
Case in point: Witherfall's upcoming album is preceeded by 3 different singles now
- First single "Insidious" includes two songs (Insidious, A Lonely Path) - iTunes $1.98
- Second single "Ceremony of Fire" includes three songs (Ceremony of Fire, Insidious, A Lonely Path) - iTunes $2.97
- Third single "Where Do I Begin" includes four songs (Where Do I Begin, Ceremony of Fire, Insidious, A Lonely Path) - iTunes $2.99
** note, this is same situation with a lot of other bands, just picked this one out - another recent example would be Time the Valuator **
2) When a single is included on the album, but it isn't part of what you download from iTunes when purchasing full album.
Case in point: Unprocessed's last album
All the 3 singles I obviously purchased one by one as I couldn't wait for the full album to be released. When the album was released I had it pre-ordered on iTunes and it automatically downloaded the remaining 6 songs, but it didn't include the original 3, so every time I listen on my phone to the album I only get 6 songs. I've managed to combine them on my computer, but on the phone it only gives me the 6 songs and then I can manually go listen to each single afterwards.
** note, this happens way too often if you ask me!!! **
3) When a band uses the same cover artwork for the single(s) and the album
Case in point: Tesseract's last album
First they put out the awesome "War of Being" single and then later the "War of Being" album ... same title, same cover. In my iTunes I now see both covers right after each other ... ugh.
Perhaps I'm to blame for buying almost all my music through iTunes, and this is only an issue with that one digital outlet? I don't know if anyone using other services have same problem? Back in the day where I purchased all my music on physical media this obviously wasn't a big deal - then again, bands typically only put out one or two singles and only if they were bigger bands ...
