Digital

Longer track previews arrive on iTunes USA

By | Published on Friday 10 December 2010

Apple has started to roll out the long mooted 90 second preview clips on iTunes in the US. Previously iTunes previews were thirty seconds long.

As of yesterday the extended previews were not available on all tracks, but it is thought that is for technical reasons, and very soon every song over 2.5 minutes long will come with a 90 second sample. With all four majors seemingly supportive of the new initiative, according to CNet indie labels were basically told to like it or fuck off, such is Apple’s caring sharing nature when it comes to anyone who isn’t a billion dollar corporation these days.

The longer previews are important for iTunes’ recent dabblings in social media, as making song recommendations to friends via something like Ping only really works if said friends can then listen to the track for free. Of course its debatable whether a 90 second preview is really any better than 30 seconds, it’s still not the entire track. It’s also debatable whether the longer previews are needed in Europe, where surely anyone recommended a song on a social network will go and preview it in full for free on Spotify or We7.

Still, there are now longer previews on iTunes. Let’s take a vote, is that more or less exciting than the news The Beatles are now on the Apple download platform? What’s that, you couldn’t care less about either innovation? Oh right.



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