Skip to Content

Apple Extends iTunes Previews to 90 Seconds Internationally

itunespreviews
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.

Popular Stories

iOS 27 Mock Quick

iOS 27 Will Reportedly Be Like Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Sunday March 15, 2026 9:42 am PDT by
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reiterated that iOS 27 will be similar to 2009's Mac OS X Snow Leopard, in the sense that one of Apple's biggest priorities is bug fixes for improved performance and stability. During WWDC 2008's State of the Union, Apple showed a slide that said Mac OS X Snow Leopard had "0 new features," as it opted to focus on performance and...
AirPods Max 2 Feature

Apple Announces AirPods Max 2 With H2 Chip and More

Monday March 16, 2026 6:12 am PDT by
Apple today unveiled AirPods Max 2, with key upgrades including the H2 chip, increased active noise cancellation, improved sound quality, and features such as Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Voice Isolation, and Live Translation. The new AirPods Max have the same overall design as the previous generation, with most of the new features coming from the upgrade to the H2 chip:- Adaptive ...
Apple Logo Sketch Feature

Apple Unveiled a Surprise New Product Today

Monday March 16, 2026 10:50 am PDT by
Surprise! Apple today unveiled the AirPods Max 2, despite no rumors suggesting that a new version of Apple's over-ear headphones were imminent. Key upgrades compared to the previous AirPods Max include Apple's H2 chip, increased active noise cancellation, improved sound quality, and features such as Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Voice Isolation, and Live Translation. AirPods Max ...

Top Rated Comments

jonnyb Avatar
191 months ago
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.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chrono1081 Avatar
191 months ago
I've bought more songs because of the longer previews. Sometimes 30 isn't enough.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Dr McKay Avatar
191 months ago
I wonder if people actually buy songs only after listening to 90 seconds of it.

Well if the song is terrible then no ;)
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
arn Avatar
191 months ago
Just what Adele needs, more bloody promotion! :p
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
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
191 months ago
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.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BillyBobBongo Avatar
191 months ago




Just what Adele needs, more bloody promotion! :p
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)