Best Buy Sounds Out Music-Download Scene

Sinnreich, formerly an analyst at Jupiter Research, says the venture's main drawback is that it's structured as a la carte sales, rather than as a subscription model, which he says is preferable. While CD and song purchases enable people to listen to a limited number of tracks for an infinite amount of time, he contends the best way to sell music over the Internet is to offer access to an infinite number of songs for the amount of time covered by the subscription. "The subscription model," he says, "makes the most sense for everybody concerned, all up and down the distribution chain."

A Best Buy spokeswoman said it was the company's policy not to comment on any retail tests.