And the band plays on

A free retail service called Instant Listening gives music-lovers immediate, global access to the music they purchase. The Instant Listening service works as simply as ordering a CD online. As the service is designed, upon purchase the Instant Listening-enabled tracks are activated in the consumer's co-branded My.MP3 music manager. If the consumer does not already have an account, one is automatically created. An email is then sent from MP3.com to the consumer with a direct link to the activated songs available for immediate listening online. The retailer sends the physical disc to the consumer. In support of this service, MP3.com allows both free and subscription level My.MP3 users to add unlimited number of CDs to their account through Instant Listening. Tower Records is expected to offer this new service by mid-January 2001. The Instant Listening partners now offering this service to their consumers include Djangos.com, Cheap CDs, and Ubrandit.com's Jungle Jeff store.