As previously reported by BetaNews, former CEO of MP3.com Michael Robertson announced the official launch of MP3Tunes on Wednesday. Songs can be downloaded for 88 cents each, or $8.88 per album.

All MP3Tunes songs have no digital rights management, meaning there is no protection to stop the music from being distributed through P2P networks. Record labels have balked at putting their content on services that cannot guarantee some kind of security, thus MP3Tunes' 300,000 songs are mostly from smaller independent artists and labels.

But the lack of major label support doesn't bother Robertson. "A consumer-friendly digital music store that provides true music ownership to paying customers can triple the digital music business almost overnight," Robertson argued. "MP3tunes gives the consumers more value because they can use the music on all their computers and MP3 players - whatever brand they may have."

MP3Tunes tracks are recorded in 192kbps MP3 format. According to the company, the Web site will work with any browser, and no software is required to access the service. MP3Tunes has taken a note from Apple's marketing leading iTunes Music Store and created a similar design for its shop.

Although it is not clear whether MP3Tunes will ever move beyond independent artists, Robertson remains optimistic. "If music buyers come to MP3tunes, then ultimately forward-thinking labels will too."