What is the criteria for the thirty second snippet of song that iTunes offers when one previews a potential purchase of music? Is there some algorithm to determine the “hookiest” portion of the song? Does Apple employ some folks to listen to each song and figure out the best parts?
Nope. I believe it picks a point from somewhere between 30-60 seconds into the song, and plays the snippet from there. At least, based on my experience, where the sort of music I listen to tends to have long lead-ins, and I always only ever hear the lead-in, never somewhere in the middle.
Interesting. That wouldn’t seem to optimize popular songs from being selected, though.