Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Cuts Some iTunes Song Previews From 90 Seconds to 30 Seconds
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
My time is worth more than spending 5 minutes looking for a good quality version of a song. For $1.29 I'd rather spend 10 seconds and download it.
Then I can play it anywhere anytime. For me streaming is far less preferable. I like to build my playlists and then have them available when I'm far away from any network.
I spent 3 months in Bali and loved having my extensive music collection with me in playlists geared to all sorts of moods and situations.
So yes, people still buy music. For some of us owning the music if freedom.
that stinks. I suppose i can understand for popular tunes where the music is what it is.
Sometimes i like to buy older songs...60s and sometimes they have a few versions LIVE. it took me half a day finding and listening back and forth, trying to understand if they were the same song/live set. 2 CDs/Albums, 2 different 90-second previews. one song was 20-30 seconds longer...turns out it was some intro portion/or outro perhaps.
Far too many times in the past, I'd hear a small snippet of a song and buy a CD, only to find the rest of the song wasn't good. a 90-second preview is great, especially for the Oddities out there that have different builds.
Sometimes i like to buy older songs...60s and sometimes they have a few versions LIVE. it took me half a day finding and listening back and forth, trying to understand if they were the same song/live set. 2 CDs/Albums, 2 different 90-second previews. one song was 20-30 seconds longer...turns out it was some intro portion/or outro perhaps.
Far too many times in the past, I'd hear a small snippet of a song and buy a CD, only to find the rest of the song wasn't good. a 90-second preview is great, especially for the Oddities out there that have different builds.
I agree! I'd rather buy my music and own a copy then to stream it. If I've bought a song or album it's mine to listen to whenever I want. I don't want the music I want to listen to be available on the whim of the streaming service provider who can add or remove songs basically at will. I'm the same with movies. I still buy DVD/Blu-ray. I've rented movies on iTunes but have never bought movies on iTunes. If I rent it and like it enough I'll by the blu-ray/DVD.
You have a good point.
----------
Yes sorry I should clarify that I meant Spotify Premium
----------
Maybe I am filthy rich
Or Maybe I am just one of the crazy ones 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIdPPVkkHYs
True but...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy-CW0X9V7o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8ju_10NkGY
Nobody cares what you support.
This is a website devoted to rumors about a premium tech company. We're hardly going to get stories about plague and famine.
I'm standing on the ledge now. Quick, talk me out of jumping.
Let me get back to you on that.
no reason you to limit preview length at all. They played songs on the radio all the time in their entirety.
Maybe you can limit the number of times they can play a song in per month or year. But if you want people to buy it let them listen to it 2 or 3 times and get them hooked.
Maybe you can limit the number of times they can play a song in per month or year. But if you want people to buy it let them listen to it 2 or 3 times and get them hooked.
Not Apple.
I dont know why people in here are blaming Apple like Apple did that exclusively to **** with the customers and be even "moar greedy!!!1111".
This is either a glitch or far more likely some labels don't want people to get "too much for free" and forced Apple to make the previews shorter by simply not giving their "OK" to 90 seconds of preview. End of fascination.
I dont know why people in here are blaming Apple like Apple did that exclusively to **** with the customers and be even "moar greedy!!!1111".
This is either a glitch or far more likely some labels don't want people to get "too much for free" and forced Apple to make the previews shorter by simply not giving their "OK" to 90 seconds of preview. End of fascination.
I seriously don't care who's responsible for this, just stop messing around here...
30 to 90, than back again....
What the heck is Apple, or music industries playing at ..
If they never liked 90 seconds, then why did they do it in the first place ?
Any intelligent person in music would fugue that one out...
Any this why i continue to pirate music and/or watch/listen/download from YouTube..
At least Google won't do this. Soundcloud is good for this too, stuff iTunes and Apple always changing stuff.
30 to 90, than back again....
What the heck is Apple, or music industries playing at ..
If they never liked 90 seconds, then why did they do it in the first place ?
Any intelligent person in music would fugue that one out...
Any this why i continue to pirate music
and/or watch/listen/download from YouTube..At least Google won't do this. Soundcloud is good for this too, stuff iTunes and Apple always changing stuff.
The future where region locks are everywhere. iTunes Radio is only available in a handful of countries in the world.
Remember when people used to say that the market for albums of music was dead because most albums were 2-3 good songs and the rest were filler tracks?
Well here we are! We've now come to the point that even songs aren't worth a full listen. So the music execs feel they must cut down the previews. If the previews are too long, people will be able to freely listen "the good part" of the song without having to buy the entire track so we need to limit it. Shortened previews also makes it harder to tell how little of the song is really great, just make sure to time your clip so it's only within that good portion (the chorus normally) and ta-da! Now it sounds like a hit track on preview. Only after they've hit buy will they realize the song is about 3 minutes too long to be enjoyable.
I previewed some top songs a few hours ago and some were 30 seconds long. I previewed the same songs now and they are back at 90 seconds.
its happening...
anyway just buy the song if its the wrong one tell apple, refund, buy the proper one. They'll get bored before you
They fail to realize that unless I enjoyed my 1.5 minute previews in my first "preview all" listen through, I won't buy the album