Apple has told the record labels that it plans to extend previews in iTunes for songs over two minutes and thirty seconds from 30 to 90 seconds. In a note to its content providers, it said it believed "that giving potential customers more time to listen to your music will lead to more purchases."
Many had expected Apple to increase preview times eventually, but had though it would be to a full minute, and was expected by some to be announced at Apple's September music event. Several other music providers have begun to offer longer previews, which likely give consumers a better idea of the song they plan to purchase.
Labels will be forced to comply with the switch: the letter states that their continued presence on the store indicates their acceptance of the new terms. If they do not want 90-second previews of their content they will need to remove it from iTunes, Apple wrote.
It is hard to see why the labels would not want to comply: longer previews would seemingly increase sales. Add to this that Apple has provided protections for shorter songs by making the minimum song length a full minute longer, and no label would be giving their content away for free through a preview.
The Cupertino company so far has not acknowledged the change publicly, and as of Wednesday afternoon song previews still remained at 30 seconds. No timeline was given for the change according to press reports. It appears to only affect the US version of the iTunes Music Store.
Apple could not be reached for comment.
Today, v9 of Chrome's dev build has been made available, beating the anticipated Chrome 8 beta to release.
In yet another black eye for social networking site Facebook, the site disclosed Friday that several developers were selling user data to a third-party.
Today, Windows Live Hotmail users will begin to receive the ability to send email from other existing email addresses while using Hotmail.
In one week, Windows Phone 7 handsets go on sale in the United States. We asked which phone you want to buy. The anecdotal results overwhelmingly favor two models.
Facebook has unveiled Deals, a feature which allows retailers to list special offers for those checking in.
Apple has told the record labels that it plans to extend previews in iTunes for songs over two minutes and thirty seconds from 30 to 90 seconds.
ABI Research today made a bold prediction regarding WiMAX adoption in the United States: that Sprint will sell nearly 3 million WiMAX-capable smartphones by the end of 2010.
Attempting to stay on par with its competitors, Oracle said Tuesday that it had acquired retail software company Art Technology Group for $1 billion in cash.
To cut down on its reliance on fixed communications, the U.S. Army is building an expeditionary mobile network with the aid of contractor ManTech.
Google TV is expected to arrive in Europe some time in 2011, so while customers wait, Yahoo Connected TV is stepping up.
A California law that prevents the sale of violent video games to minors may end up being struck down in the US Supreme Court as justices appeared to question its constitutionality.
No comments:
Post a Comment