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Apple Cuts Some iTunes Song Previews From 90 Seconds to 30 Seconds
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I'm gonna go ahead and bet this won't drive anyone to pirate music who weren't already doing it.
Geez. Clearly Apple needs Iovine more than we knew. A label pushing a preview back to 30 seconds is odd, unless maybe this is just a technical glitch, not planned.
Have they changed the lengths at Amazon? I can never get their previews to play, I can't find out myself.
You're either CRA-ZY or just filthy rich.
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Contact me, let's cry together man.
I buy 99% of my music on iTunes. The longer previews, for as long as we had them, directly led to sales for me. 30 seconds is much to short for me to really figure out if I wanted to buy a song. If 90 seconds is too long, at least make it 60.
I don't see that this is a big deal. Previews are only really necessary to make sure it's the song you think you're buying. 30 seconds is more than enough time to realise this. 90 seconds can often cover a whole chorus and part of a verse allowing people to take liberties and discouraging a purchase.
It would seem odd that either Apple or the labels would want this unless it actually drives more sales.
And that doesn't require any guesswork. Apple could easily test different lengths of previews and see which converts into more sales and could do so both as a general rule, for individual tracks and (more scarily) for different users. It would seem unlikely they'd make such a change that wasn't supported by data when the data would be easy to get.
Perhaps the longer previews reduce the chance of an 'impulse' purchase?
And that doesn't require any guesswork. Apple could easily test different lengths of previews and see which converts into more sales and could do so both as a general rule, for individual tracks and (more scarily) for different users. It would seem unlikely they'd make such a change that wasn't supported by data when the data would be easy to get.
Perhaps the longer previews reduce the chance of an 'impulse' purchase?
I buy 100% of my music from iTunes and whereas the 90 second previews are nice, I can just as easily live with 30 seconds. YouTube is your friend if you're wanting to hear the whole song before you buy it. The preview is only really to ensure it's the song that you want.
Spotify certainly is free and that's how I use it. Spotify Premium is not free.
Very, very perturbed by this. I guess I'll have to start using Spotify while iTunes shopping full-time now, something I only had to do seldom before. Many times thirty seconds just doesn't cut it. How vexatious.
Spotify is free* in the same way most free things are free. I don't think the average person really sits and thinks about the technicality that they're listening to ads every once in awhile.
Since I actually buy music for DJ performance, this is not welcome. I can't judge a song from 30 second clips.
This might not hurt super popular iTunes top 10, but I go pretty obscure sometimes, and so those small artists, if they are limited to 30 seconds, it's not gonna get a sale from me.
This might not hurt super popular iTunes top 10, but I go pretty obscure sometimes, and so those small artists, if they are limited to 30 seconds, it's not gonna get a sale from me.
It's got to be up to the artist
If they want to only give you 30 seconds because they know it's a piece of junk but there's 30 seconds that sounds good, or if they want to give you the whole thing for free on a coupon, there's somebody with a career there. Maybe that 2:30 second clip will sell you on them for life. Good for an unknown. Short clips are for people with no confidence that they're good enough to get you back with a free sample. Boy, they really think they suck, don't they? Gotta trick the audience into thinking I'm good.
If they want to only give you 30 seconds because they know it's a piece of junk but there's 30 seconds that sounds good, or if they want to give you the whole thing for free on a coupon, there's somebody with a career there. Maybe that 2:30 second clip will sell you on them for life. Good for an unknown. Short clips are for people with no confidence that they're good enough to get you back with a free sample. Boy, they really think they suck, don't they? Gotta trick the audience into thinking I'm good.
What?!!!. Someone please tell me this is not real. Oh god oh man, what do I do?...where do I go...nooooooo. My life is over. Never thought it would come to this. Just kidding, who cares ;-).
I believe Apple was playing more to license 90 second previews. And if those longer previews have not been a driver of more sales then Apple was throwing money away. So I think this is a good decision and one I wholly support.