1. A computer-implemented method for enabling a customer to sample items of playable content prior to potential purchase, comprising: receiving, via a network and from a terminal disposed in a retail site, input selection information indicative of an item to be sampled by a customer, the item including playable content; determining a base price associated with the item; accessing a pricing model for the item of playable content that depends on a current usage of the network; computing a price characteristic of the item of playable content based on the base price and the pricing model; transmitting the price characteristic over the network to the terminal for display to the customer; and transmitting a sample of the item over the network to the terminal, wherein determining a base price associated with the item further comprises interrogating a content database for a database record associated with the content, and wherein the database record further comprises an artist name field, a record label field, an album title field, a track title field, a release date field, a genre field, a catalog number field, a mood classification field, an average age field, a predominant sex field, a related item list field, the base price field, a delivery period field, an art clip field, a sound sample field, a written notes field, and a written reviews field.