Filed under: iTS
"Preview All" added to albums in iTunes
Apple has made iTunes a bit more useful for surveying entire albums. A TUAW reader directed our attention to the addition of a 'Preview All' button for albums on the iTunes Store. The store has always given prospective buyers the ability to preview individual tracks. While 30 seconds of sound may not be an adequate representation of an entire song, it is at least enough to make sure that the song you're buying is the one that's been stuck in your head for days.
For previewing entire albums, however, AmazonMP3.com has, since its launch, provided a better solution for previewing entire albums. TUAW's own first look at Amazon's would-be iTunes killer in September of 2007 noted the convenience of the site's 'preview all' button versus the need on iTunes to select each track to preview individually.
Why it's taken a bit over two years for iTunes to catch up remains a mystery, but let it. Hit the 'Preview All' button and let the music play (in 30-second increments).
Thanks pisbonanza for the tip!
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
hunglyka said 2:37PM on 12-07-2009
Knowing Amazon.com, they probably have this patented.
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Josh said 2:43PM on 12-07-2009
This has also been in place in the Zune marketplace since at least 2007, if not 2006.
This is also a good example of a robust webkit background. Rather than require a new update to enable this, Apple can simply code the button in. Cool.
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cole said 10:18PM on 12-07-2009
indeed! minor feature add's don't need dot releases anymore. excited to see what else they'll sneak in!
Nick said 2:48PM on 12-07-2009
"Perspective buyers"? I think you mean "prospective buyers".
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Ken Ray said 3:03PM on 12-07-2009
Got it... and thanks.
Michael Bushnell said 3:07PM on 12-07-2009
Great album in that picture.
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Wheels said 3:24PM on 12-07-2009
This site should change its name to The Unofficial Apple Webflog.
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Martin said 4:33PM on 12-07-2009
I just used it today. Did not know it was not there in the past. Made sense that I could use it and walk away while previewing the album.
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kaslings said 4:32PM on 12-07-2009
I still prefer the old iTS over this current slow and ugly monstrosity.
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Chris Caswell said 5:39PM on 12-07-2009
That was super weird... I was listening to Massive Attack when I clicked this article.
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someToast said 6:44PM on 12-08-2009
While previewing all from an album in the main window, open a pop-up for a second album (from the "info" button in the corner of one of the "Listeners Also Bought" albums) and start "Preview All" on the second one.
iTunes rapidly flips between the two albums, playing split-second snippets of each in order.
I'm glad to see them add this in, though. The Applescript to do it broke with version 9!
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Ryan Gray said 12:54AM on 12-09-2009
A feature that's missing in iTunes 9 with the new store is that in the old store, you could use the media keys for the song previews since the song list views were iTunes list views.
Come to think of it, you could also drag songs from the store into a playlist and play the preview from there. I guess the wishlist replaces that though.
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