Thanks. That did it. Searching the support never came up with anything because the note subject is about connecting to the store. I could always connect just fine, just the replays were hosed once I was there In any case you da man - thanks for the reply. 

well i was wrong, it isn't fixed. I might have just been lucky and got one of the random songs that works.  I am able to preview about 1 out of every 10 songs correctly.  The other 9 still play less than 10 seconds then quit. I can skip ahead in the replay progress bar after it starts and it will play from that point, but only for a few seconds. Different songs, artists, etc. I thought it might be a spurrious network condition, but if I find a song that previews, it play properly consistently, so it doesn't seem network related. All other functionality of Quicktime, itunes, ipod work fine. Not a clue why. I went to the genius bar and  they blew me off  - guess I went to the cretin bar by mistake. Any help appreciated. Apple obviously doesn't have a clue.

Thanks for the reply - I concur Apple just doesn't care. Tried most of those things as well to no avail. For a company that prides itself on the customer experience - very disappointing. When money was put into my iTunes account - there was no disclaimer that if you accessed it by anything other than an Apple product you were subject to lousy service. In fact they promote it as ubiquitously accessible.  They seem to be replacing customer service with Siri (another non-Apple developed technology) who says as usual - "I don't understand what you are saying".  If they think that this is the way to get people who haven't been absorbed into the Borg to use more Apple products, they are sorely mistaken. I wouldn't by a Macbook now if they paid me.  I (and anyone else I can convince) will be migrating away from the Apple ecosystem ASAP.

Well I think I fixed it, but with Apple you can never be sure. Just previewed 5 songs and all previewed ok. I reviewed the thread above and some other related threads and all seemed to reference DNS at some point. So I changed my DNs provider in Windows

Network connections->properties->IPV4->properties-> Primary DNS = 8.8.8.8 and secondary DNS = 4.2.2.1 .

Primary is the Google DNS server, secondary is the old old old VZ DNS (used to be GTE I think). My default was Verizon's Fios DNS (64.something). 8.8.4.4 and 4.2.2.2 are other google and VZ servers if you want the same provider for primary and secondary. I split them in case one has issues.

Then DOS CMD: ipconfig /flushdns

This seemed to resolve the issue, but can't be sure something in Apple servers, etc didn't change. I am wondering if there is something evil in the iTunes Store VZ FIOS DNS interaction, but can't be sure. At least worth a shot if you still have the issue. Ironic the google DNS servers fixed an issue with Apple. Still loathe Apple for being oblivious to the pain of many of their customers.

There is a setting in your Network Connection where you specify what domain name server to use. If you don't explicitly set one, the system uses the default of the ISP. Don't get hung up on the ISP (Comcast, VZ, etc.). They may intereact with Apple in similar ways and it may actually be an Apple Store issue with certain ones. The easiest way to set your DNS explicititly if you are not technical is to go to control panel - >network connections. Highlight the active network connection and right click and select properties. Follow the instructions above and see if that works. The way you display Network connections may vary depending on Operating system.

Here is an article with waaaaay more detail on how to change your DNS in Windows. Something I recommend whether you have Apple issues or not for a variety of reasons.

http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-change-dns-server.htm