A method for playing multimedia data in an electronic device includes A method for playing multimedia data in an electronic device, the method comprising: receiving a request for transmitting a file including multimedia data to a second device; identifying sample playback data that is a portion of multimedia data; transmitting the identified sample playback data; and transmitting the multimedia data of the file to the second device after transmitting the sample playback data. An electronic device includes a radio frequency unit configured to transmit or receive a signal, and a processor configured to receive a sample playback data that is a part of the multimedia data of a file via the radio frequency unit, and play the received sample playback data of the multimedia data while receiving the file from the external device. Other embodiments are also disclosed.