RealNetworks, Best Buy and SanDisk Come Together to Sell Music

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Best Buy unveiled the Best Buy Digital Music Store, a new service powered by the RealNetworks' Rhapsody 4.0 music service, and features both a permanent download store and a subscription download service. As part of this launch, Best Buy also will carry and promote the SanDisk Sansa e200R Rhapsody MP3 players, which have been optimized to work seamlessly with the Best Buy Digital Music Store. The Best Buy Digital Music Store and the Sansa e200R MP3 players will both be available at participating Best Buy stores as of Sunday, October 15th

By aligning with RealNetworks and SanDisk, Best Buy leverages its position as an entertainment leader, its understanding of consumers, and the strengths of RealNetworks and SanDisk to bring a compelling end-to-end music solution to its customers. Best Buy is the No.1 retailer of MP3 players in the U.S. SanDisk is the No.2 manufacturer of MP3 players in the United States, and has been growing market share rapidly over the past year. RealNetworks is the No.1 digital music subscription services provider, with more than 1.6 million subscribers. The Best Buy Digital Music Store powered by Rhapsody is part of an agreement between Best Buy and RealNetworks relating to digital content services. As part of this agreement the parties will be jointly promoting the Best Buy Digital Music Store in connection with Rhapsody optimized devices. Best Buy intends to include Best Buy Digital Music Store software and service offers in its stores, and on Bestbuy.com.

Rhapsody 4.0 gives the Best Buy Digital Music Store an innovative and customer friendly music listening experience. Based on the critically acclaimed Rhapsody digital music service, Rhapsody 4.0 adds more flexibility and features to help listeners discover new music, and was specifically designed for tight integration with the Sansa e200R MP3 player.

The Best Buy Digital Music Store offers millions of songs that can be accessed in two different ways: Customers can purchase songs, subscribe to the service for unlimited music listening. The music can be played on a computer or loaded onto the Sansa e200R, or any compatible MP3 player, and can be listened to without limits as long as the subscription is active.

Based on SanDisk's popular e200 MP3 player, the Sansa e200R Rhapsody line is designed to work seamlessly with the Best Buy Digital Music Store. The Sansa e200R comes with a free, two-month subscription to the Best Buy Digital Music Store, allowing consumers unlimited access to millions of songs; continuous new music with Rhapsody Channels, with the ability to save and skip songs; personalized music based on a subscriber's favorite artists and listening history, and hundreds of preloaded songs including major artists via Rhapsody Channels and Playlists. After the free, two month subscription, the customer purchases a subscription in order to keep it active according to its terms.

The Sansa e200R is available in capacities ranging from 2 to 8GB, and comes with all the world class features of a standard e200, including audio, video and photos; digital FM tuner; integrated voice recorder with built-in microphone; strong, scratch-resistant alloy casing; a microSD expansion slot for additional memory capacity; a sleek, thin design with large 1.8" TFT color screen, and a customer replaceable, rechargeable Lithium Ion battery with up to 20 hours battery life based on continuous playback at 128 kbps MP3.

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