1. An entertainment system, comprising: a storage device containing a plurality of discrete expressive works; a programming processor for distributing a selected sequence of the discrete expressive works over a communication medium for sequential presentment to a user over a user-specified period of time in response to a user preference signal; and a terminal for generating and transmitting the user preference signal to the programming processor, the user preference signal comprising a sequence of user preference items and the user-specified period of time, each user preference item identifying a discrete expressive work or one or more desired attributes of a plurality of the discrete expressive works from which the programming processor selects a discrete expressive work for the user.