1-800-MUSIC-NOW
Encyclopedia
1-800 MUSIC NOW was a short-lived venture by MCI Communications
MCI Communications
MCI Communications Corp. was an American telecommunications company that was instrumental in legal and regulatory changes that led to the breakup of the AT&T monopoly of American telephony and ushered in the competitive long-distance telephone industry. It was headquartered in Washington,...

 to open a music store operated through automated telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...

 prompts. It also introduced one of the first ever serious attempts at an e-commerce music store. The service was run out of MCI's Consumer Markets Headquarters offices in Arlington, Virginia (Pentagon City).

The telephone service allowed United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 users who dialed the toll-free number 1-800-687-4266 (the last "W" in the brand name was irrelevant to the actual number; in effect, 1-800 MUSIC NO) to enter the name of a performing artist by touch-tone, then select one of that artist's albums (available on CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 or cassette) from the catalog and hear clips from that album before buying by credit card
Credit card
A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...

. Users could sample and buy music and could shop by artist name, album name, genre, song title, Top 10 lists, etc. Once users made selections on the automated service, they were transferred to a call center where an operator established an account (for first-time buyers), collected payment and shipping information, assisted in ordering, and completed the order. Subsequent ordering could be accomplished through the automated system without human assistance.

The online service was located at http://www.1800musicnow.mci.com. It was the first to offer free music sampling for most of its catalog—initially in RealAudio 1.0 and eventually in RealAudio 2.0. The online store shut down in early 1997.

The service began in 1995 (the same year Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...

 opened, and three years before it started selling music) but was taken down by the end of 1996. The promotion totaled about USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

$40 million (at the time, advertisements for the service were quite regularly played on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 and advertised heavily as part of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

 Homerpalooza
Homerpalooza
"Homerpalooza" is the 24th episode of The Simpsons seventh season and originally aired on May 19, 1996. The plot focuses around Homer's depression about aging and no longer being cool, and his quest to become cool again by joining the "Hullabalooza" music festival as a carnival freak. The episode...

episode); meanwhile, its top-selling CD sold only 400 copies. Ultimately, over 1 million pieces of music were sold within the year. One survey noted that many of those who called the number did not sign up to make purchases, some citing shipping fees, but most saying it was because they didn't have credit cards.
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