Long tracks not for sale as singles on iTMS

I have noticed this. Sucks.

Timeline please.

IIRC, it's one of the concessions they made to the record companies.

What?

I think that's exactly it, and it's not unreasonable. I have a couple of CDs that are only 1 or 2 (long) tracks. Those CDs are still the same price if you buy them in the store. If the individual tracks were still available for .99, you could get the whole album at a tiny fraction of its legitimate cost.

The 9.99 album/.99 track model really only works when it would cost the same or more to buy the whole album track-by-track than to buy the album, and so the 7-minute thing is meant to solve that problem. But it is a pretty blunt way of dealing with the issue, because there are some cases where one 7 minute track exists on an album for which purchasing the tracks separately would still cost more than the whole album.

Well, you can find some deals. The Vacation Concerts from Widespread Panic are available for $14.99. That's for 51 tracks and like 3 hours+ of music.

Huh?

What?

Juh?

In before Peter�.

There are some long ones out there. During the Pepsi promotion I scoped 'em out to get the most bang for no buck.

Here are the longest singles for 99� I found:
An American In Paris (Gershwin) - 18 minutes, 29 seconds
Totentanz (Liszt) - 15 minutes, 25 seconds

Sorry, but Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew" beats all of those at 27 minutes. Plus it's actually good! There are a number of 20+ minute tracks on that album and on The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions.

Well, I didn't say they were the longest singles on the store, just that they were the longest I found - and my search criteria was somewhat limited.

True, it's not a contest. But let's make it one! Let's try to find the longest single on the iTMS.

There are Audiobooks that are over 75 minutes long in one track. Of course, they're not 99 cents.

31:54, O.D.O.O. by Fela Kuti in the World Music section.

Turnpike - 13:08

Rhapsody in Blue - 16:27

All Blues - 11:35

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Hint: Jazz/Classical

Ha! You'd need all three to pass my offering.

I've got the best track here. It's 3 hours, 2 minutes, and 35 seconds long. Price: Free.

Bor-ring </homer>

Wow. And below the accurate and descriptive title, ITMS lists the Narrator as Unknown and the Category as Classical