In EMD service, when a user listens to a sample of a musical piece, the
user listens to the sample of the musical piece being reproduced by an
EMD client on judgment of the EMD client itself without the user
performing an operation for starting the trial listening reproduction.
Specifically, when the user presses a upward key 44 or a downward key 45
in a state in which a musical piece presenting page 91 as a list of
musical pieces (musical piece information for identifying them) is
displayed, the EMD client updates a musical piece to be reproduced for
trial listening, and displays only the information of that musical piece
in inverse video 92. The EMD client obtains trial listening data of the
musical piece from an EMD server and reproduces the musical piece (one
part thereof) corresponding to the trial listening data from a speaker 21
on judgment of the EMD client itself without the user performing an
operation for starting the trial listening reproduction. The present
invention is applicable to household electric appliances such as audio
apparatus and the like that can be connected to the Internet.
