The length of the preview should be limited to about one minute.  There doesn't seem much incentive for people to buy the track when they can play it in full for nothing!

it's one of those 'you can please some of the people some of the time' things.

early on in testing we had it so by default previews were 30 seconds, but the groundswell of opinion was that full length previews of all tracks was a good thing, so we changed it.

we want to offer indiestore users as much choice as possible, it's your music and you should be able to serve it up how you want. as a result, we will be introducing a function which allows you to choose whether you want a 30 second clip or a full length preview.

we've spoken to quite a few people about this very subject. it's left me wondering why full-length previews and free downloads on MySpace are okay, yet on indiestore a full length preview means people won't buy. Heck, I sounded like Carrie Bradshaw in 'Sex In The City' for a moment there...

would love to hear everyone else's thoughts on this. it's a really interesting one.

Spencer the option to choose is a wise choice; yes I for one think you got this one right man!

 

fluximus out

You gotta cut the preview. That's why you call it a preview. It's supposed to be a taste not the full meal. In case you didn't know (which you should flinging a site like this) any self respecting artist/computer whiz/ hacker/ computer literate freak knows you can rip anything that plays on the comp off the internet with a certain music editing program that every music producer has and i will leave nameless. Bottom line is no one is going to buy music that they can pop open on the site and listen to it no holds barred. Also with technology the way it is it doesn't take much to find said program or other free readily available programs and create high quality rips with the click of a button. Cut the preview down.

see my previous post...

'we want to offer indiestore users as much choice as possible, it's your music and you should be able to serve it up how you want. as a result, we will be introducing a function which allows you to choose whether you want a 30 second clip or a full length preview.'

sounds good, i'm assuming this option is still in the works so as soon as it's done i know you'll let us know. Good looking out spence.

I think you should allow the artist to choose between 30s, 1min, 2 min etc, this way you can please all the people all the time, perhaps? Great site though, i can see this getting massive once people find out. I have a couple of myspace accounts but i dont know of any other sites that let you sign up for free and sell your stuff. Whats the catch?(lol) 30% i guess.

Hi,

Concerning the length of the preview...

Is this available yet...

Hi olatuja,

We have not enabled it just yet.

Regards,
indiestore team

I say choice for this one, I see where you are coming from with the myspace thing. However on myspace downloads are free. People won't mind downloading musuc for free they can hear online, but if they are paying for music they can hear anyway they will think twice. I know you say you want to give everyone choice. But full length preview at a lower quality is basicly giving your music away you must understand.

Hi Aov,

Thanks for your input. We obviously want to make indiestore as friendly as possible to the artists and listeners. We will be able to give you an update on this when it's ready.

Thanks,

indiestore team

Yes, please let the artist decide the length of the preview. Way to go!

Any idea when the option to reduce the preview will be available?

Kind Regards.

Just inquiring about the same issue as everyone else in this thread. When will this be available? Thanks for the info!

There has been talk about introducing a choice of length of preview clip for over a year now. When is this going to be sorted out? We've paid  to upload our songs and this has seriously put us off uploading any new material until this is resolved. There are so many complaints and enquiries about this and it really should be addressed. Both the artist and Indiestore are potentially losing sales / income. Cheers.