Apple's Lala acquisition leads to 30-second song previews on the web
By Donald Melanson 
posted January 8th 2010 6:44AM
posted January 8th 2010 6:44AM
We have a sneaking suspicion that this wasn't the only reason Apple bought Lala, but it looks like the first fruits of the acquisition have now begun to show themselves in the form of 30-second song previews on the company's recently-launched, browser-based iTunes Charts. Not exactly a web-based version of the iTunes store, to be sure, but it's a start... sort of.
Wasn't this available before the Lala acquisition? I know I read this somewhere before then. I'll put a link as soon as I find it.
@JoshuaTurner iTunes Preview was launched a few months ago, yes. Now it's also possible to preview the songs. However, I don't see how this has anything to do with Lala, as the iTunes Preview platform was up and running before the acquisition..
@JoshuaTurner
Note to apple: 30 second previews are why people steal music. Put the whole song up please.
From your friendly non-music-stealing lala.com user.
@Luke Isn't this like saying that movie previews are the reason people download films? If you want to buy it, you'll buy it. If you want to download it, then you will. I don't see the connection between a short sample (which is what Amazon and others do as well) and piracy.
@01
I don't think they're exactly comparable. I don't know if it would make a noticeable dent in illegal downloading, but I think if more people could listen to an album once for free, they wouldn't bother stealing it. I don't listen to a lot of pop, but I would have to imagine that there would be fewer thefts of Lady Gaga's albums if people had the opportunity to listen it once without committment.
But that's why I like lala so much: Tiered purchasing. Most music I pass on with one listen. If it grabs me, I can listen infinite times for less than a dollar. If I can't live without it away from a computer, I'll buy the MP3s. I'm listening to (and buying) more music than I ever did before, and it's all legal.
OK, here we go: http://gizmodo.com/5403986/itunes-enters-the-web-browser-with-itunes-preview.
This was posted back in early November, before Apple bought Lala. I'm pretty sure that whatever comes out of the Apple & Lala deal will be exciting, but this isn't it.
@JoshuaTurner yeh your right but it never previewed the song (30 seconds) on the web before ... untill now
@JoshuaTurner read the article: "At the moment, Apple isn't doing very much with iTunes Preview. Sure, you can view music (videos and other media not yet online), but to buy or preview anything, you're redirected into iTunes software. In that way, iTunes Preview really lives up (or down) to its humble name—it's a non-interactive preview of iTunes content for people who haven't loaded the software (as well as bloggers who'd just like to link a webpage rather than an app). But is it so crazy to imagine a day when Apple allows us to buy music free from the confines of their software?"
@Benaus Ahhh!!! Okay, I missed that little tidbit.
Wait hasn't Amazon MP3 been doing this for awhile?
@Maj Yeah, since it's inception.
@Maj
Apple probably didn't have the licensing to do it in full scale, but by acquiring LaLa they also acquired their licensing so they can now do it. In theory I suppose.
@Maj They've been doing it since back when they only sold CDs
Amazon has no freestanding music store software. So they had to or there'd be no way to buy anything.
@Maj
yup.
and zune marketplace does as well, and it also has a web-based store (Y)
@Maj
I'm pretty sure that Amazon has had 30 second music previews on their website since before iTunes 1.0 was released in 2001.
Not really convinced this is because of LaLa... The whole iTunes Store is pure HTML etc now, I gather; so really they took the previews *out* of the browser version, and just reinstated them. I suspect that those guys are at Apple for something *new*.
This makes sense with the whole iTunes 9 store being rewritten as HTML5 instead of the old Next webstore stuff
That is not from Lala. The preview is available for many years via the iTunes RSS feed. I have done some programming and I can stream the previews on my test page here: http://www.n-tunes.com
plus amazon has this kind of feature for years?
Oh boy, sometimes I hate living in europe...
You guys in US get all the goodies. 30 second song preview and we net to put up with tons of free music in spotify...
(bracing myself for rock throwing)
@Mr w00t
having just moved across the pond, I've noticed that for every spotify providing some nice content I want, there's a hulu or a pandora blocking me from enjoying equally good (or better) content I used to get for free. Why can't we all just get along without having to mask our IPs? Sigh.
This is proof that blogs/bloggers cant go without mentioning apple into anything tech related.
I mean this old and in no way related to LALA. Why would apple waste millions of dollars to acquire a company to move their 30 second preview from the itunes software to the web?
Engadget I love you but you make me sick sometimes.
even though it appears to be 30 seconds long, i usually only get 9 to 11 seconds of audio.. 30 seconds my ass!
Yeah I think Amazon and Zune marketplace have both been doing this for some time.
And to think, when I said they were just trying to catch up with Zune (exactly the truth so far, and a certainty going into the foreseeable future) I got down ranked into oblivion....
The truth hurts, Apple fanboys-and-girls.
Great! A browser based iTunes would run much better than that bloated craplet they normally hock music through.
Not that Engadget implies otherwise, but the price paid for Lala was far too high to justify such a triviality as web song previews.
I'm still holding on to the hope that Apple wants to allow you to stream your home's iTunes media to your portable i-Device over the internet someday!
@ColinMcGraw Or you could buy a Zune.. That way you could stream any music you want to your HD if you have the zune pass. Then you could download it directly to your device. I know a lot of people give the Zune pass crap, I used to as well, but once you get one, you don't want to give it up. But if you want to buy a high quality PMP with a bunch of cool features which will enhance your music listening experience then but a Zune HD. If you want something that can do a little bit of everything then get an iPhone.