Best Buy Sounds Out Music-Download Scene

Best Buy (BBY Quote) has quietly launched an experiment that could change how people buy music, TheStreet.com has learned.

With consumers downloading greater amounts of free, file-shared music from the Internet and buying fewer audio CDs, record companies and music retailers dependent on CD sales have struggled on two fronts: preventing people from getting unauthorized copies of music from the Internet, and encouraging them to listen through authorized services such as MusicNet, pressplay and Rhapsody.

The Best Buy experiment, which debuted in a handful of Midwest stores within the past week, represents a new approach to authorized downloads, and hints at how bricks-and-mortar retailers such as Best Buy -- one of the nation's largest retailers of music and consumer electronics -- might participate in the business.

Unlike the authorized services already in operation, Best Buy's new "Digital Hits" venture takes advantage of Best Buy's real-world presence and sales force. And the experiment keeps the bricks-and-mortar retailer in the loop of online delivery of music -- a transaction that might otherwise take place between record company and music consumer, bypassing the music retailer in the middle. ...