An big deadline is approaching for customers of the iTunes Store. This past March, Apple introduced “Complete My Album”, which gives you a credit against albums purchased within 180 days of buying an individual track.

But what about singles you bought long ago? Well, Apple set June 26, 2007 as the date “Complete My Album” expires for tracks purchased before December 28, 2006.

That’s less than two weeks away, so go to iTunes and see what you can buy and for how much.

But before you get too excited, there are gobs of exceptions. Hidden in the FAQ is a Catch 22 where you can be penalized for having purchased too many individual tracks. Example: I spent $7.92 to buy Use Your Illusion II by Guns N’ Roses. I bought all eight tracks of the “partial album only” that Apple offered, but this album is not eligible for Complete My Album pricing.

The CMA FAQ says:

…if you previously acquired so many single tracks from the same album that the price would be less than the current price of a single song…, you will not be able to purchase the remaining tracks.

The full album of “Use Your Illusion II” now costs only $6.99, so if I had bought fewer tracks – only 6 of the 8 – I could have upgraded for $1.05. Instead it will now cost me $14.91 to repurchase the full album. With it will be tracks that I already own, in a DRM’d low-res format no less. It’s a stupid policy which punishes individual track purchasing, and worse, it was Apple (or GnR’s label) who restricted me from buying the full album in the first place.

I like the convenience of the iTunes Store, but if Apple does enough of this, CDs on Amazon are looking pretty good again.