Apple Extends iTunes Previews to 90 Seconds Internationally

MacRumors · Jul 30, 2011

Apple seems to have extended iTunes song previews to 90 seconds internationally. Apple first rolled out 90 second previews in the U.S. back in December, 2010. International song previews had been stuck at 30 seconds.

According to a number of reports, the new preview lengths are available in at least Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK and parts of Europe. As with the U.S. launch, not all songs will have 90 second previews.

In the U.S., Apple had made the change unilaterally in an email to labels telling them that they would automatically extend previews from 30 seconds to 90 seconds in the iTunes Store in the U.S. It's unclear what was the reason for the delay for international markets.

Article Link: Apple Extends iTunes Previews to 90 Seconds Internationally

wordoflife · Jul 30, 2011

I wonder if people actually buy songs only after listening to 90 seconds of it.

andrewh93 · Jul 30, 2011

Still have 30 second clips in the New Zealand store (just checked)

firestarter · Jul 30, 2011

I've just been testing this out - and while there are now some 90 second previews in the UK store, a good proportion still seem to be 30 seconds.

Beatles, Beyonce, Iron Maiden were 90 seconds, ABBA, Queen, Metallica 30 seconds (just some random things I checked!).

andrewh93 - check 'Hey Jude'

Agent OrangeZ · Jul 30, 2011

It took longer because Apple has to wheel and deal with the labels who are dragging their feet.... trying to figure out a way to extort more money for 60 more seconds of preview...

andrewh93 · Jul 30, 2011

firestarter said:
I've just been testing this out - and while there are now some 90 second previews in the UK store, a good proportion still seem to be 30 seconds.

Beatles, Beyonce were 90 seconds, ABBA, Queen, Metallica 30 seconds.

Oh yes - I just checked Beyonce - Best Thing I Never Had and it is 90 seconds.

The one I tested (Super Bass, #1 on the charts) was still 30 seconds.

wackymacky · Jul 30, 2011

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Not really sure how much this will effect sales. Don't most people use the preview to confirm its the song they are looking for?

firestarter · Jul 30, 2011

wordoflife said:
I wonder if people actually buy songs only after listening to 90 seconds of it.

Sure, why not? You can get a good idea of a song in 30 seconds - I don't think this is going to make a whole lot of difference.

Single songs are pretty cheap.

wordoflife · Jul 30, 2011

firestarter said:
Sure, why not? You can get a good idea of a song in 30 seconds - I don't think this is going to make a whole lot of difference.

Single songs are pretty cheap.

I guess, but I'd prefer to listen to the whole song at least once before buying it

Vazkor · Jul 30, 2011

90 seconds in Italy too. Do you think they will eventually update every song with the new preview?

BillyBobBongo · Jul 30, 2011

MacRumors said:

Just what Adele needs, more bloody promotion!

chrono1081 · Jul 30, 2011

I've bought more songs because of the longer previews. Sometimes 30 isn't enough.

arn · Jul 30, 2011

BillyBobBongo said:
Just what Adele needs, more bloody promotion!

I just picked the #1 song off the list.

Not really sure how much this will effect sales. Don't most people use the preview to confirm its the song they are looking for?

It's good for music discovery. I was looking at some albums the other day, and trying to find some new music... so the 90 second previews were nice.

arn

jonnyb · Jul 30, 2011

90 second previews are very important for the discovery of dance and electronic music, especially, as the tracks tend to be much longer than your average pop song. A 30 second sample often doesn't do a track justice so these new longer previews are especially welcome for me.

jjayoen · Jul 30, 2011

firestarter said:
I've just been testing this out - and while there are now some 90 second previews in the UK store, a good proportion still seem to be 30 seconds.

Beatles, Beyonce, Iron Maiden were 90 seconds, ABBA, Queen, Metallica 30 seconds (just some random things I checked!).

andrewh93 - check 'Hey Jude'

I can second this for the Australian store. Just checked some songs from those artists and some still have 30 second previews.

srxtr · Jul 30, 2011

Do people use the previews to determine if they like the song or not? I would think for the majority of the time previews are played to confirm it's the correct song they want.

On the other hand, 90 seconds is nearly half the song for most songs, so why not...

Dr McKay · Jul 30, 2011

wordoflife said:
I wonder if people actually buy songs only after listening to 90 seconds of it.

Well if the song is terrible then no

weckart · Jul 30, 2011

firestarter said:
Sure, why not? You can get a good idea of a song in 30 seconds - I don't think this is going to make a whole lot of difference.

Guess again. It all depends on where the clip is selected. Too many are from extended intros and non-singing portions of songs where you really have no idea what the song really sounds like.

Snowcat001 · Jul 30, 2011

Finally! Really nice!

Scrumper · Jul 30, 2011

weckart said:
It all depends on where the clip is selected. Too many are from extended intros and non-singing portions of songs...

That's a very good point. It seems that no consistency or judgement is employed when selecting clips. I know it would take a little more effort but as long as somebody is doing the selecting, it might as well be somebody with some common sense.

cozmot · Jul 30, 2011

firestarter said:
Sure, why not? You can get a good idea of a song in 30 seconds - I don't think this is going to make a whole lot of difference.

Single songs are pretty cheap.

There are some songs that after 30 seconds you have no idea what they're about. Ninety seconds, for any song, will let you know.

Mikkis · Jul 30, 2011

Nice but

Maybe they could also implement iOS emulator inside iTunes so you could also try apps before buy.

heimo · Jul 30, 2011

30 seconds in Finland. 90 seconds will be welcome, if it ever arrives here.

bulldoze · Jul 30, 2011

Maybe Apple are testing their servers for a forthcoming streaming service? seems like a good way of gradual stress testing?

Can't see this coming for at least another year though, and with all the cash that Apple has sloshing around I really don't see why they just did not buy up Spotify and have done with it!

haruhiko · Jul 30, 2011

Except that most of the world doesn't have an iTunes store.

Apple Extends iTunes Previews to 90 Seconds Internationally

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