Hasta La Gadget!

Apple last night confirmed long rumored plans to extend the length of song preview offered through its iTunes music store. The long standing 30 second preview length will be tripled to 90 seconds for songs longer than two and half minutes (those falling below that mark will still be 30–sorry Minutemen fans).

Apple alerted record labels about the change with a form letter stating, “we believe that giving potential customers more time to listen to your music will lead to more purchases.”

Apple failed to negotiate the longer songs with the National Music Publishers Association, back in September. Since then, the company has spoke to music licensing groups like BMI. From the sound of it, however, this may well be the first time the company has spoken directly to labels about its plan to move forward.

“All you have to do is continue making your content available on the iTunes Store,” Apple wrote in the letter, “which will confirm your acceptance to the following terms.”