Damon Dash enters the mp3 player market with Rocbox

News.com reports that in November, Dash will introduce a line of MP3 players under the name Rocbox. "We saw Apple making a killing, and we thought it would be a good market to go after," Dash said in an interview last week. The players will be sold by a new company he formed with partners, called Roc Digital. "It has been rough going in the music business," Dash said, adding, "We have been using music to promote my other brands and validate them in a cool way."

The hard-drive Rocbox is shinier and a bit bigger than an iPod, while matching its US $299 price tag for a player with enough memory for 600 hours of music. A smaller white and aluminum flash-drive player is US $159, and has enough memory for about eight hours of music. Both players will be sold at Macy's and CompUSA stores.

Shae Hong, the president of Roc Digital said "In the urban market, selling something cheap is not what they want, they want the best." The Rocbox players will be distinguish from other players on the market by weaving images of them into videos for artists of his label, putting tags promoting them on his clothing and giving buyers access to exclusive Roc-A-Fella music.