Muze Inc. has announced the availability of MuzeTunes, an audio streaming service featuring a database of 1.8 million song samples that is targeted at online music retailers, entertainment sites and Web destinations.
The service offers 30-second downloadable samples of every song recently released commercially in the United States and the United Kingdom, said Michael Kennedy, vice president of marketing at Muze, New York.
MuzeTunes offers samples of new albums on their release dates. The service can include artist biographies, discographies, reviews, tour dates and cover art.
Kennedy said the service can be used to improve time-spent-per-visitor statistics for Internet destinations and entertainment sites. He said Yahoo Inc. is using the service to offer MP3 downloads and artist information at its Music channel.
“It has become a requirement for our customer base to offer sampling,” Kennedy said.
The company has been an in-store kiosk service provider for music retailers since 1991. Muze has combined its catalogs of music information with audio files to provide this service.
Muze partnered with digital music technology firm Liquid Audio, Redwood City, CA, to provide the service. Tunes.com and Muzak.com offer competing services.
