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The day in numbers: 30GB

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(CNN) -- Microsoft enters the digital music business Tuesday when it releases its new portable media player, Zune, in the U.S. as part of an effort to make a dent in rival Apple's market share.

30GB: The Zune can hold about 7,500 songs -- or 30 gigabytes -- of music. Songs for the devices will be sold on the Internet at an online music store called Zune Marketplace. The devices will be able to connect to each other wirelessly so users can share music, but shared songs will be erased after three days.

3: Number of colors the Zune comes in: black, white or brown. Zunes also have rubbery shock-resistant casings.

$249.99: Price of a Zune, on par with an iPod with an equal amount of memory space.

7.6 centimeters (3 inches): Width of the LCD screen on Microsoft's new player.

99 cents: Price of one song at the Zune Marketplace service.

2 million: Number of songs in the Zune Marketplace. Apple's iTunes store has about 3.5 million songs for sale at $1 each. In a groundbreaking deal, Microsoft has agreed to pay Universal Music Group a fee for each new Zune digital music player it sells. Apple does not give a cut of sales of iPods to music companies. It only pays labels for songs sold on its iTunes music store.

1: Number of models available in the Zune range. Competitor Apple offers a range of players, from its matchbook-size iPod shuffle to a movie-playing iPod with 80 gigabytes of memory.

80 percent: Market share of digital media player sales iPod has. The iTunes music downloads site is also the dominant online music store.

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