“Currently, iTunes offers 30-second snippets of songs, a feature designed to give users a taste of the music to help them decide whether they like it enough to buy,” Sandoval reports. “Some users have long complained that half a minute isn’t enough time to really hear a song.”
MacDailyNews Take: It depends on the music, but sometimes 30-seconds just isn’t enough.
Sandoval reports, “For those who are hoping Apple will finally launch the cloud music service that CNET and others have written so much about in recent months, you’re likely going to have to keep waiting
Read more in the full article here.
It depends on the music, but sometimes 30-seconds just isn’t enough.
Sometimes 30 seconds is way too much!
Insert premature ejaculation joke here
I wish they’d change the amount of preview for movies/tv shows…or at least have someone with a brain making the clips. FYI, Apple – I’m pretty sure I know what the opening credits look like and don’t need them to be 99% of the preview. Thanks.
It also depends on the part of the song that the preview is cut from. Lots of times they take 30 seconds off the front end on a song that has a long ramp-up and then none of the chorus or any parts of the song after it really gets going. Who decides where the preview is going to get clipped from, anyway?
Found in the future…
After 10 years Apple finally allows that last 15 seconds of songs to be previewed.
Apple still is not offering a streaming music service though.
30 seconds is laughably short if you’re into Godspeed! You Black Emperor.
A welcome change.
Maybe I’m just not the right power user of the music preview function, but this is about the most uninteresting rumor I’ve read on MDN. Not hatin’, just sayin’.
For those old enough to remember, in the very early days of listening stations in record stores, it was not much more than a CD player that let you play any song on the CD or the whole ALBUM for it’s entirety. I would typically walk out with 3-4 CD purchases every time I visit the store, after carefully listening to an entire song or rare selections. Since then I can count the number of albums I bought online in one hand.
I’m sure the move to digital samples and centralized management was good for some IT folks and save the big companiers some cost, at the cost of jobs and music sales. Way to go, technology.
30 secs is only enough if its not a long intro. But as important, 24 hrs to watch a movie isn’t enough! I started a movie took a flight the next day and lost time.
@ Greg – LOL. How true… And some of those tracks aren’t even one-minute long.
And, that’s it, folks. End of the keynote.
Lol @ C1. Love those guys! You are so very right about that!
@acid… what’s a store? And how do you walk into one? I thought you just used your mouse…
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@ acid
Listening stations…? CDs…? Jesus… Am I so old that I still consider those kinda new?
How about hearing the whole tune once, just like Laika?
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The reason why previews are 30s long is down to performance rights. At 30s you’re within “fair-use” territory, at a minute the relevant agencies (RIAA, PRS, etc) consider that a performance.
Apple don’t want to have to pay a performance fee for every preview played back by a customer, hence previews get limited to 30s.
30 secs is only enough if its not a long intro But 6o minute is too much time i Pad have so many tune which time is only near about 30 second their good tune and his music and his timing slow and a goo reithem .
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Cool, I’ll be able to listen to entire Minutemen albums like that.
About time too! But if you’re hunting for remixes of your favourite song, often 60 seconds would be too short too.
I think it would be preferable to have full song previews – the first 60 seconds at full quality and the rest at low quality so you know exactly what you’re buying.
Apple needs to make their previews a random 30 second sample. So you can hit the sample button a few times to get little snippets of the song. It is annoying that the segments chosen usually suck…
45 seconds would do.