Apple launches in-browser iTunes Preview

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Apple launches in-browser iTunes Preview

Apple has quietly rolled out its new iTunes Preview feature, letting both iTunes and non-iTunes users browse the iTunes Store’s music catalog without needing to launch the iTunes application itself. Currently accessible from Apple’s online iTunes Charts or via direct iTunes Store links, the Preview pages include track listings, user reviews, and related links, although ironically users can’t actually preview songs from within the browser-based interface. It’s unclear whether Apple plans to expand this functionality to TV Shows, Movies, and Apps listings, as well. [via Macworld UK]

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Comments

1

Excellent, hope apple keeps in this direction. Put iTunes on the cloud get that bloatware off the computer. Works for netflix

Posted by Xing on November 13, 2009 at 9:58 AM (PDT)

2

I like this concept. The evolution should be that a user can store his/her entire music selection online.
Mobile Me does all some rudimentary music storage and playback but w/o the slick itunes interface. GO APPLE!!!

Posted by superboy on November 13, 2009 at 10:58 AM (PDT)

3

Like the web portal into the ITMS. However, will not (repeat not) at this point trust my music collection to the “cloud”. Someday, this should be normal - at this point, the technology and, more important, the business model just isn’t there yet.

Posted by Cold Irons on November 13, 2009 at 11:45 AM (PDT)

4

@CI: Trust? Where does that come in. There are numerous services out there that do this already, and it’s only a secondary storage medium. Your “hard” copies are still yours, still on your hard drive, your backup, your DAP, etc., but they also give you the option of playing back from their web player anywhere on any device that supports the web player.

Trust has nothing to do with this, and the business models are only hampered by price points (storing a decent sized collection remotely winds up costing as about the same every year as a physical hard drive that stores considerably more). For now, you’re better off just buying yourself enough hard drives to back up everything securely and relying on your DAP for remote playback.

Apple, though, is in a great position to offer such a service since much of the music the sort of people who would opt to use such a service is already stored remotely on their servers. Further, they have the server and bandwidth infrastructure down to a science at this point. At a reasonable price point without intrusiveness as to what gets stored on their servers, perhaps limiting it to audio only to avoid issues of pornography, it could be a service even I’d consider using. At $19.95/year to hold and stream “unlimited” (say up to 500GB of audio, which 99% of people would never touch, sort of the gmail model), it would be great.

Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on November 14, 2009 at 6:27 AM (PDT)

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