On Itunes, if you download a single, then 3 months later you "complete the album" - is that later purchase counted as "buying an album" or buying 8 or 8 singles?

I have no idea, sorry. But I'll bump this because someone else might know.

Actually an interesting question........wish I knew the answer

I've wondered this for a while, I think it counts as you buying the single, then buying the album. Otherwise sales figures for singles would go down.
I'm not sure though

Since you are not buying the album as a whole, it will not count as buying an album. It will count towards the sales of each song as if you bought them individually. You need to buy the whole album at the same time for it to be considered an album purchase.

After doing some research into it, i've just found out that it counts towards a single and an album sale, but apple are "gifting" the single to you.

how are they gifting it if youve already bought it?

Because if say if you bought a single for 99pence, then you bought the album for it's full price of £9.99. You've paid 10.98 for a whole album, and a single you don't need.
So they're saying, you've bought the single and the album for the albums price of £9.99, and just gave you the money back for the single ,but you've still "bought it" as in they "gifted" it to you.

thanks and that even works even if if you buy the track from an album rather than an actual single

(many idiots download the album track as a single, rather than the official single track)

so the best way to get your fave act into both charts is to-

1) buy the single seperate

2) then buy the rest of the album

as this will count as a single sale and an album sale.