Apple to credit song purchases towards full album sales?

Also known as "the feature that should've been there from the start," it sounds like Apple is finally working out deals with labels to allow for the purchase of singles on iTunes to act as credit towards the purchase of the full album from whence they came, at least within a limited time frame. Such a deal has been rumored before, but this time the word is from the New York Times, citing "people involved in the negotiations," which sounds decidedly less sketch. Obviously, there's still much to learn, since we don't know what kind of time period Apple has in mind, and we don't know how many labels it has on board, but we can think of many a DRM slave music consumer that would benefit from this deal -- and don't get us started on season passes.

[Via Ars Technica]