Best Buy has unveiled the Best Buy Digital Music Store, a new service powered by the RealNetworks, Inc.’s Rhapsody 4.0 music service, and featuring 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 with the Best Buy Digital Music Store. The Best Buy Digital Music Store and the Sansa e200R Rhapsody players will both be available at participating Best Buy stores.

The Best Buy Digital Music Store will launch with an exclusive track from Diddy, coinciding with his new CD, Press Play, which goes on sale 17 October.

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.

The Best Buy Digital Music Store offers millions of songs that can be purchased for $.99 per song or customers can subscribe to the service for US$14.99 per month for unlimited music listening. The music can be played on a computer or loaded onto the Sansa e200R Rhapsody, or any compatible MP3 player, and can be listened to without limits as long as the subscription is active.

The Sansa e200R Rhapsody 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.