At the same time, the industry is straining to shore up the album as long as possible, in part by prodding listeners who buy one song to purchase the rest of a collection. Apple, in consultation with several labels, has been planning to offer iTunes users credit for songs they have already purchased if they then choose to buy the associated album in a certain period of time, according to people involved in the negotiations. (Under Apple’s current practice, customers who buy a song and then the related album effectively pay for the song twice). But some analysts say they doubt that such promotions can reverse the trend.
I agree in that I don't think you can reverse the trend of consumers buying singles, but you can stop some of the bleeding. On multiple occasions, I would have "upgraded" to complete album if I weren't double paying for the 1 to N songs I had already bought. The same concept needs to apply to TV Show season passes or after seasons have completed. I have bought a few episodes of The Office this season from iTunes, and with Apple TV now, I might be included to upgrade to the full season, but there is no way I am paying again for those episodes, so I do nothing. And time bombing the discount to album upgrades is wrong headed. I could understand making it more enticing to consumers by making the discount for people that already own a single to buy the full album bigger, say $7.99 for the next month, but then it should revert to straight deduction of the single costs, so $8.99 using typical pricing.