Create 30 second preview of an MP3 file

I'm looking for a way of automatically creating a 30 second preview fil开发者_如何学Goe of an MP3 when it is uploaded through my ASP.NET Web Application.

I want this to work similar to last.fm or iTunes where you can preview a 30 second clip of an MP3 file before purchasing and downloading the entire song.

How can I achieve this?

You should check out Alvas.Audio. It's a .net library that allows you to do all sorts of things with mp3s. You could use it to chop of a portion of the mp3 and create a new 'thumbnail' mp3 that your site could use for previewing.

There is also ffmpeg that is free and could do what you need.

EDIT: A quick search came up with this similar question on SO that you might want to check out: Audio Libraries for MP3 editing