I had meant to post about this a few weeks  back but with all the launching, posting, and Turkey I’m just getting around to it now.

You may have noticed that we’re able to feature the Jay-Z record American Gangster (both for purchase or for subscription download). To get the album, we had to respect the artist’s choice to offer only the full album (vs selling individual tracks).  In the case of American Gangster, the album stands as a unified piece of art, with all tracks weaving a cohesive narrative. It’s up to the artist how they want their work presented, and we respect their choices and offer the album how they’d like. Radiohead is another example – we offer Radiohead albums as complete works only (except, of course, In Rainbows).

Not all digital music retailers have opted for this – some won’t offer an album if the songs can’t be purchased as individual downloads.