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Apple Extends iTunes Previews to 90 Seconds Internationally

Saturday July 30, 2011 12:13 am PDT by Arnold Kim

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.

[ 78 comments ]


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jonnyb
101 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.
Rating: 10 Votes
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chrono1081
101 months ago
I've bought more songs because of the longer previews. Sometimes 30 isn't enough.
Rating: 10 Votes
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arn
101 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
Rating: 8 Votes
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Dr McKay
101 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 ;)
Rating: 8 Votes
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BillyBobBongo
101 months ago






Just what Adele needs, more bloody promotion! :p
Rating: 5 Votes
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weckart
101 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.
Rating: 5 Votes
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srxtr
101 months ago
Do people use the previews to determine if they like the song or not? I would think for the majority of the time previews are played to confirm it's the correct song they want.

On the other hand, 90 seconds is nearly half the song for most songs, so why not...
Rating: 2 Votes
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Scrumper
101 months ago

It all depends on where the clip is selected. Too many are from extended intros and non-singing portions of songs...


That's a very good point. It seems that no consistency or judgement is employed when selecting clips. I know it would take a little more effort but as long as somebody is doing the selecting, it might as well be somebody with some common sense. :rolleyes:
Rating: 2 Votes
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Mikkis
101 months ago
Nice but

Maybe they could also implement iOS emulator inside iTunes so you could also try apps before buy.
Rating: 2 Votes
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timtempest
101 months ago
I sell music in iTunes

Hiyall,

I sell children's songs in iTunes as The Magic Crayons which are between 1:20 and 3:08 in length.

I've just been and looked at the sample lengths now provided in the US store and its seems a 2:30 track or greater gives a 90 second preview and if its under that its 30 seconds. We don't have any say in which part of the track is made into the preview clip.

Personally, I am happy to now have the extra length preview as I am selling songs to help teach English, so the more of the song that parents and teachers get to hear the better. I will have to wait a month to compare sales figures though.

I have to say I am not a fan of streaming services as I make next to nothing from them. For example, one play on Rhapsody gets me $0.0091 !
That person might of course go on and buy the song, but I can't check that.

Tim
Rating: 2 Votes

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