PayPlay.FM Announces Unprotected MP3 Store

Media technology company PayPlay.FM, a group that provides digital rights protection of media files for independent artists, announced plans Tuesday to sell unprotected MP3s from its 600,000-track library for 88 cents a song. These tracks would be uniformly compatible with Mac OS X, Unix and other portable media players that are not supported by Apple’s iPod or any other device that utilizes Windows Media DRM (Digital Rights Management), a security service utilized through subscription.

PayPlay.FM has additionally been selling, and will continue to sell, DRM-protected songs at 77 cents a track, opting to give digital music consumers freedom of choice when purchasing MP3s.

This competitive strategy should provide the greatest incentive for buying downloads from independent artists. The DRM-protected songs distribute a comparatively large 192kbps (kilobits per second) VBR (variable bitrate) sound. This quality is 64kbps more than the bit rate of iTunes, allowing for higher bandwidth and clarity.