Before retrieving mp3 files you need to tell Hit Discovery one or more addresses of the websites, mp3 top lists, or favorite music collections you want to retrieve mp3 files from; the name of the artists or music groups you are looking for and then begin the search. The Hit Discovery spider will visit the sites in turn and examine their pages for links and mp3 files. If Hit Discovery finds mp3 files matching your conditions, it retrieves not the entire mp3 file, but a small portion of the mp3 file called an mp3 preview. The duration of mp3 previews usually is a few seconds (by default, 10 sec., but you can change the value).

Once you have retrieved a preview, Hit Discovery allows you to listen to the preview and decide: to retrieve the entire mp3 file or not. If you like the mp3 preview, Hit Discovery allows you to download the entire mp3 file. If you could not decide whether you want to download the entire mp3 file because of the small length of its preview, Hit Discovery allows you to download more of the preview (retrieve and add a new portion of the mp3 file to the already downloaded portion).

In the program options you can set the preview starting point from the beginning of the mp3 files. In this instance previews will be cut from the middle parts of mp3 files. It is designed to exclude a song introduction, which usually is difficult to assess the song quality from. The program has its own mp3 player, allowing you to listen to mp3 files and previews.