Ever since the iPod hit the market, the iTunes media player that came along with it gained as much love as the device itself. Enough love in fact that even people without iPods and iPhones still use the application to play their music.

Well the iTunes Preview just received a new feature that has improved the application so much that everyone is clapping at the change. The iTunes Preview just got a feature that allows sound samples. If you happen to stop by the iTunes Store you would know what sound samples are and now if you go to iTunes Preview pages you can mouse over a music track and press play you would be able to hear a 30 second sample of the track. The samples require the iTunes to play sequentially of course, that is if you do not intend on buying or if you have bought the album or song you’d still need iTunes to play it.

This move is a leap towards Apple’s goal of cornering a part of the web streaming market ever since their acquisition of Lala last December. So keep your eyes open for more drastic changes and more features to come.