Muze to sample songs for HP device

Entertainment information company Muze has signed a deal to put its streamed-audio preview service, dubbed MuzeTunes, on Hewlett-Packard's Digital Entertainment Center, a digital-music and computing appliance. Muze's service will let music fans hear a sample of songs before purchasing CDs. The New York-based company also will provide album information, reviews, cover art and other information via the device. Muze's catalogs of music, books and video titles serve as the search directories for retail outlets such as Virgin Megastore, Amazon.com and Yahoo. In May, Muze launched MuzeTunes, which provides retailers with audio clips in Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format. That service will now serve HP's appliance, which was released in October. With the appliance, consumers can download music from the Internet and play it on a home stereo. The device can also be used to play and burn CDs, store digital music and transfer songs to digital-audio players.