Amazon.com is offering to plug customers into new music before it hits store shelves, according to streaming media company Speedera Networks.
The Web superstore is expected to announce this week that it has hired Speedera to digitally stream the entire contents of prereleased CDs to customers after they order the physical CD from Amazon, Gordon Smith, vice president of marketing for Speedera, told CNET News.com.
Amazon said digital streaming will improve the shopping experience.
"Amazon.com already uses Speedera"s streaming services to deliver music samples, movie trailers and game previews," said Jeff Blackburn, general manager of Amazon"s Worldwide Digital Group. "Speedera"s new streaming service provides us with a means to innovate even further."
The offering, which will include only a small number of titles initially, is designed to allow customers to listen to pre-released music while they wait for the actual CD to be released and delivered to their door, Smith said.
Although a slew of e-tailers sell digital music or videos, most offer only short samples of unreleased songs. Amazon is one of the first e-tailers to legally offer prereleased CDs, in their entirety, over the Web. But Amazon is not getting into the music-download business, Smith said.