songs

Apple confirms move to 90-second iTunes samples

Longer song samples are finally on their way to iTunes.

An Apple spokesman confirmed for CNET this evening a report by Symphonic Distribution, a digital music distributor, that iTunes would soon be extending the length of song samples from 30 seconds to 90 seconds for songs that are at least two-and-a-half minutes in length. Shorter songs would continue to offer the 30-second sample.

Apple notified the top music labels and other business partners in the music industry about the change today.

The samples are, of course, the snippets of music that Apple offers to iTunes users so they can determine … Read more

Some iTunes special promotions aren't so special

Apple isn't offering much savings for consumers in an iTunes promotion of indie music.

On iTunes homepage today, Apple posted an ad linking to a list of nine songs from independent artists, including "Too Much" from Sufjan Stevens, "Golden Haze" from Wild Nothing, and "Revival" from Deerhunter.

According to the blog Digital Audio Insider, a Web search found that the first five songs are available for free elsewhere on the Web.

"The first five tracks are all songs the respective artists and record companies are already giving away online," DAI wrote. &… Read more

Why iTunes song samples are still only 30 seconds

Apple's plan to extend the length of song samples doesn't appear to be dead.

"We are in active negotiations with Apple," about the length of song samples, said Hanna Pantle, a spokeswoman for Broadcast Music Inc., (BMI) one of the performing-rights organizations that collects royalties on behalf of songwriters and music publishers. She declined to provide any details.

At BMI's rival, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), a spokesman declined to comment. A source close to the company, however, said Apple has a license with ASCAP that doesn't appear to put … Read more

iTunes song-sample plan runs into music publishers

A trade group representing music publishers and songwriters informed Apple on Tuesday that the company could not go ahead with a plan to extend the length of iTunes song samples without the publishers permission.

On Monday, CNET reported Apple had plans to boost the amount of time iTunes users would be given to sample a song from 30 seconds to 90 seconds. Sources with knowledge of the plan said Apple could announce the song samples as early as Wednesday during the company's media event in San Francisco. Apple had already reached agreements to extend song samples with the four … Read more

Priority Inbox sorts Gmail

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded: Priority Inbox sorts Gmail MySpace gives into Facebook iTunes song previews double NASA signs up for Flickr 10-inch Android tablet arrives

Research supports longer iTunes song samples

Song samples are no trivial matter, say researchers from Robert Morris University.

Consumers are more likely to buy songs if allowed to sample the music for about 60 seconds and if provided access to a "high-quality" version of the music, said professor Min Lu and assistant professor Yanbin Tu.

"Our empirical tests show the current stingy online digital music sampling [of 30 seconds] is not optimal," the researchers wrote in their in their 28-page report.

Apple is expected to announce, during its media event on Wednesday, that it will boost the length of iTunes' music samples, … Read more

iTunes song samples may double in length

Apple's iTunes, the largest music retailer, will boost the amount of time users are allowed to sample a song, sources told CNET on Monday.

On Wednesday, when Apple CEO Steve Jobs takes the stage at the company's annual September media event, he is expected to announce that iTunes users will be allowed at least twice the amount of time to sample a song, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the move. The sources said the sample period could be extended to as much as 90 seconds.

An Apple spokesman said the company doesn't comment on speculation … Read more

The 404 640: Where we finally run Frash (podcast)

Adobe launched its Flash player for the Android 10.1 operating system back in June, and now Apple is getting the same treatment, but under the table. The same hacker group that released the Web site jailbreakme.com has released an early version of Flash for jailbroken iPhones.

The program is called Frash (pause for Jeff to laugh), and at the moment it can only handle Web sites with basic Flash animations, so don't expect to watch streaming videos from sites such as YouTube or Vimeo just yet. Keep in mind that jailbreaking your iPhone does make it vulnerable to a certain security exploit revealed last week. Of course, Apple is planning to patch the issue, so you may want to hold off on updating apps like Frash until then.

You've probably heard of cars that run on vegetable oil, but what about a vehicle that runs on methane gas extracted from human waste? Engineers at GENeco are testing a Volkswagen Beetle, aka "Dung Beetle," that uses methane harvested from bacteria stored in sewage decomposition containers.

The thought of a fart-powered car might tickle your gag reflex, but there's no denying its energy efficiency. Our own Rory Reid on Crave U.K. said the waste from 70 homes can create enough gas to run the Dung Beetle for 10,000 miles, and it's also carbon neutral since all of it normally is released into the atmosphere when the sewage converts to methane.

Join us in the second half of the show where we'll discuss yesterday's epic Classic Tetris World Championship in Los Angeles. More than 200 players competed in the Championship organized by former Nintendo World Champion player Robin Mihara, but only Jonas Neubauer was able to beat the other eight players in the semi-finals and win the trophy and $1,000 prize.

We asked for TerrorByte lyrics over the weekend and you guys certainly delivered! Check out today's submission from Mark after the break, and don't forget to send yours to the404(at)cnet(dot)com! If you just want to leave a comment about the show, feel free to give us a ring at 1-866-404-CNET or BBM our phone at 2482F452; we'll be waiting!… Read more

Clearing orphaned music files after iTunes library migration

When migrating your iTunes library from one computer to another, you may find that all the songs have been duplicated in their storage locations on the hard drive and have been given a naming pattern to differentiate it from its corresponding duplicate. For most cases of file duplication an easy approach may be easy to just remove the duplicated file; however, in the case of iTunes libraries there can be thousands of files in multiple directories.… Read more