The idea behind Listen.com may look good on paper, but it is poor in

practice.

Listen.com is a Web site that offers downloads and samples of musical

digital files (MP3s).

With over 100,000 songs available in over 600 subcategories of music and

user-friendly searches, one would think that Listen.com would be a

great site with tons of downloads. However, this is not true. Most artists

that are searched for come up with only two or three available songs; some

artists’ most popular songs are not even on the site.

The San Francisco-based company has partnerships with leading independent

record labels and online music distribution companies such as MP3.com,

Emusic.com, Liquid Audio, Real Networks and many others. These partnerships

allow one to find an artist and download some of their songs through links

to various record labels, an artist’s own site and commercial music sites.

This seems like a good idea, but there just aren’t enough officially

licensed digital music files to render a positive supportive audience.

In support of the Web site and the downloading of songs, Listen.com

offers many advanced features. One can see what artists have been recently

added to the site’s extensive directory or suggest that a band be added via

an on-site form. Surprisingly, this is a great and helpful feature.

Original reviews and artist information are also offered to add to one’s

browsing pleasure. As if that wasn’t enough, Listen.com makes

suggestions about what other bands one may like after a search is

performed. The suggested bands seem to be very accurate.

Overall, Listen.com is a big disappointment. Since many MP3s are

still not legally available, Listen.com just isn’t worth the

effort.