Universal Music Group (UMG) on Tuesday (8/1) announced the launch of its foray into digital sales of its artists’ music. The company said it is beginning by offering 60 tracks in a newly developed format that it has created called “bluematter.”

Tracks by UMG artists such as Blink-182, George Benson, Live, Luciano Pavarotti, 98 Degrees, Marvin Gaye and Smash Mouth can be purchased through a number of online vendors, including Excite@Home; LAUNCH.com, Lycos Music, Music.com, and RollingStone.com.

Bluematter-formatted files, in addition to their audio capabilities, also contain related multimedia content, such as artist biographies, photographs, lyrics and credits. The files cost $1.99 per track, and are played using RealJukebox 2 and a bluematter plug-in.

The bluematter format contains built-in security measures that prevent users from freely distributing a song once it has been purchased and downloaded. In a test conducted by LiveDaily, a bluematter file legitimately purchased on one computer and sent as an attachment to another computer prompted the user who received it to also purchase the song before it could be played.

UMG is the third major label to implement a strategy for digital distribution of copyrighted music. Sony began doing so in April using a format called OpenMG, and EMI launched its own trial in July using both the MP3 and Liquid Audio formats.

In a press release issued on Tuesday (8/1), UMG said they were implementing the program as a trial to gain “insight into consumer preferences for accessing and enjoying legitimate digital music.”

The use of the word “legitimate” is particularly telling, as the seemingly insurmountable hurdle that all of the record labels face in their efforts to distribute their music digitally is the free online availability of the same music via services such as Napster and Gnutella.

Meanwhile, following its Tuesday announcement about bluematter, UMG on Wednesday (8/2) announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Rondor Music, one of the world’s leading independent music publishing companies. Rondor’s holdings include music by such artists as Tom Petty, Michael Jackson, the Beach Boys and Celine Dion. Published reports indicate that the Rondor deal cost UMG between $200-$300 million.