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DataPlay

What is dataplay? A clear definition from the recording section of our glossary, with 12 related terms and further reading.

Definition of DataPlay

DataPlay is an optical disc system developed by DataPlay Inc. and released to the consumer market in 2002. Using tiny (32mm-diameter) disks enclosed in a protective cartridge, it stored 250MB per side and was intended primarily for portable music playback. However, it could also store other types of data using pre-recorded disks and user-recorded disks (and disks that combined pre-recorded content with a writable area). It supported multisession recording. DataPlay Inc. was founded in 1998 by Steve Volk. The company's namesake optical disc won the CES Best of Show award in 2001.

DataPlay also included an elaborate digital rights management system designed to allow consumers to "unlock" extra pre-recorded content on the disk at any time, through the internet, following the initial purchase. It was based on the Secure Digital Music Initiative's DRM system. DataPlay's DRM system was one of the reasons behind its attractiveness to the music industry. It also included a proprietary file system, DataPlay File System (DFS) which natively supported DRM. By default, it would allow up to 3 copies to other DataPlay discs, without allowing any copies to CDs.

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Frequently asked questions

What is DataPlay?

DataPlay is an optical disc system developed by DataPlay Inc. and released to the consumer market in 2002. Using tiny (32mm-diameter) disks enclosed in a protective cartridge, it stored 250MB per side and was intended primarily for portable music playback.

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