Q: iTunes song preview time is cutting off.

I've put iTunes into Windows 7 compatibility mode. Turned off all anti-virus programs. Ran ipconfig/flushdns. Shut off all pop-up blockers. Turned off Adblocker. Uninstalled and reinstalled iTunes. Still cuts previews off short. This is very inconvenient. The problem isn't our computers. It's gotta be on Apple's end. Their stream is randomly closing for some reason.

Glad you brought this up because I just checked my Norton Firewall settings and it's set to allow itunes. In my desperate attempt at getting itunes to work, that was a step I forgot all about. However, make sure you do a re-boot just in case.

Regarding disabling unnecessary Windows 7 services: I'm not tech savy either. I just followed the steps outlined in my previous post. There are many services running that aren't needed and can slow up your PC. You are NOT removing them. Again, I am not sure this actually solved my problem but I have a PC that also runs faster.

As far as changing itunes compatability mode. Mine was not changed and it's working fine.

TheRickman: You cannot stream Linkin Park's new album since it's a pre-order. Only one song is available to preview. For me, the one song previews for the full 1:30. 

Andro28 - in iTunes Store, go to Music---Rock. An ad will show about LP's new album, and the free stream. Click the ad, it'll take you to their new album page where you click "Listen Now" to hear the whole album. I can't get it to play past 15 seconds.

@therickman, I'm able to preview the one song offered for preview, Burn It Down.  It's the only option.  All other songs are grayed out and can't be selected for preview, but I can preview the entire 1 min 29 secs of Burn it Down.

@therickman, ok i got it now.  Didn't know how to get there.  The album has been playing a couple of minutes now without interuption. 

therickman34: Just followed your steps. Plays fine for me.

Do you have Norton? Did you set it to allow itunes? Otherwise, you can try to disable some unnecessary services.

I know many are against this but we can't count on Apple to solve this problem.

I don't have Norton. I use Avast. I have it completely turned off. In addition to disabling all unnecessary background apps, I also turned off Windows Firewall. I've uninstalled, reinstalled iTunes and all the Apple/Bonjour programs. I've run the flush. I've rebooted. The Linkin Park album preview still stops at 15 seconds. The "Burn it Down" preview stops at 12 seconds, consistently. On all three computers running different versions of Windows and different versions of iTunes 10. I have no idea what else I can do to solve this problem.

therickman, did you re-boot after turning Avast off?

I'm not familiar with Avast. Do you know how to change the firewall settings in Avast to 'allow' itunes?

Also, did you disable the Windows 7 firewall? I have Norton enabled so I disabled the Windows firewall.

Over 100 people with the same problem, and likely they all have different devices, operating systems and anti-virus systems, yet Apple insists on blaming the user.

I wonder how many people have to comment on this thread with the SAME BLOODY PROBLEM before the oh-so-brilliant support people at Apple will actually fix it?!

Apple support: are you looking at these threads? People WILL NOT BUY songs if they cannot preview them!!! Please fix this issue, which is clearly at your end!!!

yep, one more (fairly computer savvy) person who was condescendingly told by apple that it's a software issue on my own end with anti-virus or something

currently have 509 songs in my purchased list on a computer that is only 2 years old, and now taking my business to amazon for the next 12 months at least to give apple some time to get their attitudes right and fix their own d@mn software problems

I think it may be network related.  I have two networks available to me and using one (unfortunately the main one that I use) it cuts off after 6 seconds.  If I switch to the other network (without making any other changes to my computer including leaving iTunes open) it will play the entire preview length.

I think it's strange that I can preview movies in iTunes and they play through - but when I sample songs, they stop anywhere from 5 to 15 seconds.  What would be the difference that a network would be aware of?

I completely agree. Apple/iTunes needs to listen to their customers. iTunes has worked just fine for five years now. I've purchased hundreds of songs with no preview problems until now. I recently gave an iTunes gift certificate to someone. I thought I'd contact the person and ask if he was having the same problem, and the answer was yes. I'm completely convinced the problem is not on the end of all us customers but with Apple iTunes. I've tried the stupid suggestions they offer with no luck either. I'm no longer going to mess around with iTunes. Rather, I'll be purchasing music from other sites where the previews work just fine and the music costs less. I'll then just save the music to my iTunes folder since the player and format is still much better than others.

I've been having trouble on my Win7 computer as well, but my wife just told me she is having the same problem with itunes previews - on her iMac!  So it seems the problem is NOT related to windows - it is an APPLE issue!