Best Buy teams up with SanDisk for digital music store

6 October 2006 12:58 GMT / By Amber Maitland

Best Buy, the US’s top electronics retailer, has unveiled the Best Buy Digital Music Store in collaboration with SanDisk and powered by the Rhapsody 4.0 music service.

The deal between SanDisk and Best Buy sees the retailers stocking and marketing the new Sansa e200R Rhapsody media player, which are designed to work seamlessly with the Best Buy Digital Music Store.

The new service will launch on 15 October, when the Sansa e200R will the hit the shelves pre-loaded with “hundreds” of songs via Rhapsody Channels. The player includes a free two-month subscription to the download service, after which users must continue to subscribe for $14.99 a month. If they don’t subscribe, the music will no longer play on their device.

However, users can also buy DRM-protected songs for $0.99, just like they can from Apple iTunes.

The companies managed to rope Sean “Diddy” Combs in as their headline celebrity at the launch. An exclusive track from his upcoming album will be available from the Best Buy Digital Music Store.

The tiny Sansa e200R features a 1.8-inch screen, FM tuner, voice recorder, and a microSD slot fro additional memory. It’s available for $140 for the 2GB model up to $250 for the 8GB (expandable to 10GB) player.

Full tags

Audio, Online, Music downloads, SanDisk, Best Buy