Q: iTunes song preview time is cutting off.

No my ISP's DNS work fine for every other web address except the iTunes store. It is much more likely that a bug in the Apple iTunes store app is making a bogus DNS lookup after the initial resolution allows the replay to start. This erroneous call is either ignored or handled as a non critical error by Google. The ISP DNS likely has stricter enforcement of the protocoI and replies with an error that kill the replay. I doubt it is a bug in the ISP DNS that ONLY affects Apple. Like there aren't millions of successful lookups everyday by the ISP DNS. It is far more likely that iTune store initiates an invalid protocol sequence. In any case Apple needs to be able to tell us that not just assume it is someone else's problem. After all they have thousands of 'Geniuses' just sitting around waiting to swap out defective hardware or is reboot and reinstall the only diagniostic procedure they know..

After my third complaint regarding this subject via Apple Online Support, here's the automated response I got:

"Thank you for contacting iTunes Store Support. My name is Reina and I am glad to assist you today. I understand that song previews stop playing around 10 to 16 seconds. I would like to help you with this, but I could not locate the purchase based on the information you provided. Please respond and include your purchase's order number in your reply.

"You can find your order numbers on your email receipts and in your Purchase History."

Are these people idiots, or just purposely wasting time?

Apple's Customer Service reps are not trained to respond to such queries. Despite that issues such as this are routinely directed to them instead of being escalated to someone who can actually help you. Why?  Good customer service costs money. It's possible they do this intentionally so you will throw up your hands and just go away- also cost effective. They don't care because they don't have to.

Last week there was an extensive report in the NY Times about pay and working conditions in the Apple stores. Their employees are overworked and underplayed,  often working 10+ hours without a break. in addition their factories in China are notorious for deplorable working conditions.

We rush to buy their overpriced crap despite all of this. Why should they change?

The only way to fight back is to boycott them. Take a moment to write an email telling them you will no longer patronize ITunes. If enough people do it it will get their attention. Money talks.

I read through multiple threads and have come to the conclusion the problem is on Apple's end in regards to songs cutting off while in the itunes store.

My simple solution is preview and download music through Amazon (usually cheaper downloads) until Apple fixes the problem.

I have had no problems downloading and playing music with i tunes software or on my ipod. Below is the link to Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b?ie=UTF8&node=163856011

It would be funny if I wasn't so frustrated. That was my experience too when I started with this issue weeks ago. They insisted that I provide the names of songs that were cutting off. They wouldn't accept all. I finally ended up sending them a random list of like 15 songs. What's funny is that they gave me 3 song credits for my trouble. Too bad I won't be able to use them.

Hi barbpf ... wunbadapple does have a solution here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3962871  I changed my DNS like described and I finally can listen. This has been the only thing that has worked.  So far all afternoon. 

Hi Jackie -- I was going to try that but not technical and I use my laptop for work. I'm using Comcast as my ISP. Any chance I could blow up my internet connection by changing that? (I won't hold you to it ) Just wondering....

hey thanks for posting that link, i have actually never looked at amazon music, and it is cheaper. I am going to have to check it out.

i had downloaded a bunch of songs and later found out that 10 of them cut off before the end as well. I thought maybe something happened when i DL them, so I dl it again, thinking they would not charge me, but they did. So i contatcted support and they fully refunded me for the 10 songs.

I later found out for all the songs that are cut off, just go to your purchase history and dl t hem again. I did that and they were all fine the second time round. Still a major pain in the *** though.

I really don't know.  I made sure to read the link he had in a second post as well as googled what changing the DNS meant. I created a restore point. Are you on W7?  After inputting his suggested numbers (don't check 'Check network connectivity'), doing the Dns flush - iTunes worked without a reboot. I held my breath, crossed my fingers, too!

I'm not tech savvy, but been on computers since 1988, so I sometimes have a 'feel' for things. Good luck to you.

Changing your DNS server shouldn't break anything. For most ISPs most likely it is set to automatic (no DNS specified) in the part where you enter 8.8.8.8. That allows the ISP to route the DNS request to its server. If you specify another server it gets routed there.  If you are worried about it, just note whatever entries are there (take a screenshot) before you change anything. If it doesn't work just change them back to the original settings.

if you want to know what DNS is this is a good intro.

http://youtu.be/72snZctFFtA

And everyone - just because things may start working - don't forget how Apple has treated you on this issue. Migrate away from the ecosystem. Use Amazon - cheaper, more reliable  - MP3 format is more portable and you don't have to jump through hoops to get it in that format like Apple makes you do. Once you buy it it is yours and no one can tell you what devices it can work on, etc.  Use Android based hardware - it does everything Apple does and more and no one tells you when and how you can use it. You bought it and it is yours to legally do with what you want.

thepiratebay.se         here songs is free, no need to buy on amazon or itunes

I agree with many of the posters that this is an Apple issue. This has been happening on two of our computers (Vista and Win7) and on both the previous (10.5) and current versions (10.6.3.25) of iTunes. We have followed their instructions for possible fixes and nothing works. We do not use Norton (Malwarebytes and MS Security Essentuals), and both were disabled throughout the processes. Based on the variety of circumstances surrounding this issue, imo, I think it's an error on Apple's side. I won't be wasting my time any further and will be waiting for Apple to fix it on their end.

I've made many purchases from iTunes store in the past and noticed immediately after that update when the error occurred. It's getting old having to use other sources to sample music before buying. But, as many others have stated, we can certainly sample and buy elsewhere.

This is definitely an issue with Apple since so many people have experienced this issue based on the number of posts.  I don't see how all of a sudden it's an DNS issue that is causing the preview cutoff problem, and that it is our problem to fix.  I have used iTunes for years to purchase music and never had this issue until the 10.6.x update.  Perhaps once I use up my iTunes store credit I should jump ship to amazon.com like others have suggested.

Disregard.