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Apple to Double iTunes Preview Song Lengths?

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Apr 12, 2001
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CNet reports that amongst the many rumored announcements for Wednesday's event, Apple may also plan on extending iTunes music previews from 30 seconds to at least 60 seconds:
On Wednesday, when Apple CEO Steve Jobs takes the stage at the company's annual September media event, he is expected to announce that iTunes users will be allowed at least twice the amount of time to sample a song, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the move.
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The move is said to address criticisms that 30 seconds simply isn't enough time to preview a song.

Apple is also said to be focusing on their constant improvements in the iTunes music discovery`experience. Meanwhile, Apple is not expected to announce any iTunes cloud plans so soon. According to CNet, the necessary agreements are still not in place.


Article Link: Apple to Double iTunes Preview Song Lengths?
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/08/30/apple-to-double-itunes-preview-song-lengths/
I would really like this change. Sometimes when you are trying to find new music a little more time to listen can really help you decide if you want to purchase it or not.
 
better but not enough

This helps a bit but iTunes really needs full length previews. Sucks buying a song and finding out it dies halfway through. I now only buy ones I know I like before hand.
 
barkomatic said:
The 30 second preview isn't enough. It seems to always miss the hook.
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Or it only catches the best 30 seconds of the song. You buy and find out the song is utter crap otherwise. I have a handful like that.
I'd love a full 25 kbps preview myself. Not enough to make me want to rip it off but enough to hear it all. I know I used to preview full albums before and it was not until the second or third go around that I suddenly enjoyed the album.
 
rate.php3sid=20100830191856&rate=2&from=1


Good to hear!
 
This is great, but where are the iTunes Apple Lossless downloads? I haven't bought a single track of iTunes since the very beginning because they do not offer lossless tracks for purchase. I know a lot of people use iPods and crappy speakers to listen to their music, but considering iTunes has a built in "convert all tracks to 128kbps before sync" option, it really is stupid to not sell lossless now.

I guess I will just have to keep on buying physical CDs and ripping them to lossless.
 
It's weird isn't it? For decades, radio was used to promote songs by the curious tactic of simply playing them. Now in the digital age apparently 30 seconds (or even twice that) is apparently enough. Why is it with all this technological progress that in many ways we're going backwards? :confused:
 
The bigger problem is with TV show previews. In some cases they choose an early segment that amounts to the opening credits/theme song. So you basically get the same preview for each episode in the series.

Perhaps this has changed. I've purchased a few shows but I haven't bothered with previews in some time.
 
Can't think of any reason to get excited about this except...

Nope. Now that I think about it, that's not a reason either...
 
Porco said:
It's weird isn't it? For decades, radio was used to promote songs by the curious tactic of simply playing them. Now in the digital age apparently 30 seconds (or even twice that) is apparently enough. Why is it with all this technological progress that in many ways we're going backwards? :confused:
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radio was not on-demand though, which was the key difference.

arn
 
Porco said:
It's weird isn't it? For decades, radio was used to promote songs by the curious tactic of simply playing them. Now in the digital age apparently 30 seconds (or even twice that) is apparently enough. Why is it with all this technological progress that in many ways we're going backwards? :confused:
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Radio stations play the same god damn song over and over again because record companies knew if you listened to the same ****** song over and over again, you begin to like it. Besides, radio stations (in the US) are mostly owned by ClearChannel, so your choices are pretty limited.
 
There's always one....gotta love diversity :)

Someone voted negative. I'm hoping he doesn't understand the concept to voting positive/negative articles....either that or...the future is not bright for him. :)))
 
arn said:
radio was not on-demand though, which was the key difference.

arn
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Sure, I take the point, but I also remember how when Steve Jobs introduced the iTunes store he liked pointing out how great it was to find music you wouldn't necessarily have ever heard otherwise - I would guess that he 'got it' even then and would have preferred full previews from day one.

I guess I'm just making the not-particularly original point that the music industry still seem way behind the curve on coming to terms with online distribution...there is so much more they could still do but they are so obsessed with piracy they continue to damage the experience for the paying customer whilst leaving the pirates relatively unaffected.
 
One Big Advantage

Good news Apple!

It is easy for everyone, to create full quality audio CDs with Toast v10.x.x from FLAC-encoded source files (Exact Audio Copy or EAC Audio CD archives), which everyone can download from <insert-your-favorite-filehoster-here>. You do not even need to burn the Audio CD. Toast can mount the Audio CD disk image, and iTunes can convert the tracks in MP3 or ACC, including all metadata, which you need for your mobile music player.

A commercial product must provide some extended value, and i think Apple recognized this. And Apple knows that it has one big advantage, if compared to the file sharing community: Convenience.
 
Licensing problems?

Porco said:
It's weird isn't it? For decades, radio was used to promote songs by the curious tactic of simply playing them. Now in the digital age apparently 30 seconds (or even twice that) is apparently enough. Why is it with all this technological progress that in many ways we're going backwards? :confused:
Click to expand...
I do not know where i did read it, but i think the 30 s limitation was a licensing problem. For everything longer than 30 seconds, Apple had to pay licensing fees to the MPEG-LA (or whoever), because they use their own AAC encoder and have a user base > 100000 users. This is no problem for the average iTunes user (a person which uses the iTunes AAC encoder), because he/she does not have a user base which is > 100000 users.
 
Perhaps Apple should use the radio feature within itunes to allow users to stream from the catalog. Perhaps by genre and it streams random? The song played would have a link to the catalog for purchase.
 
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