A newly released online music service emphasizing streaming Internet radio song storage will provide college students with a unique alternative to the current download-based programs like iTunes, Ruckus and Napster.

Melodeo, a Seattle-based media company specializing in mobile music and radio, is entering the online music arena with a free program called nuTsie. Taking its name from a rearrangement of the letters in "iTunes," nuTsie will allow people to upload a playlist containing their entire iTunes libraries onto their own online music profiles.

"I liked that it had playlists because it groups music I would like together," Brittany Thomas (junior-political science) said.

Dave Dederer, spokesman for nuTsie, said the service is of interest to Penn State students.

"It facilitates sharing because you can add other people as friends and listen to their playlists," Dederer said. "Also, it's legal."

Dederer said he has been involved in the music business for a long time, beginning as a founding member of the quirky '90s rock outfit The Presidents of the United States of America. Besides playing guitar with the band, he ran its independent record label. Since taking a hiatus from touring, Dederer has gotten even more involved in the business side of music.

"I've always been kind of the business person," Dederer said. "I started to get invited to speak at events and panels on the issue of digital music, and a year and half or two years ago, I was on a panel with one of the owners of Melodeo."

The company was so impressed with Dederer's ideas that this fortuitous meeting eventually led to his hiring as the company's vice president of music content.

Dederer said nuTsie's mobile feature is what distinguishes it from other legal music services like Ruckus and Napster. Once users upload their music libraries, they can access all their music from their cell phone with a download.

"The application is very thin," Dederer said. "It only takes about 10 seconds to download."

Most mobile phone providers already support nuTsie, with the notable exceptions being Alltel and Verizon. Dederer said he expects all of the major carriers to be on board in the near future.

Melodeo's press release touts nuTsie as a replacement for expensive iPods and iPhones, though the company plans to also support MP3 players with wi-fi in the future.

The big question is how nuTsie can be free and legal at the same time. The secret, Dederer said, is in designing it to work as an Internet radio provider rather than a music downloading service. Artists will be paid a royalty each time one of their songs is played.

"There is no downloading," Dederer said. "Instead, the service searches its database for the music in your playlist and then streams the files. Our system makes sure that everyone gets paid."

However, the service's Internet radio format is a concern for students used to downloading individual songs.

"I don't think I would use nuTsie," Ian Browning (freshman-business management) said. "I like being able to pick what I listen to."

Because nuTsie focuses on friends sharing their iTunes playlists online, it relies on snowball-effect popularity growth.

"None of my friends have nuTsie," Thomas said, "so it doesn't help me until it catches on."

Thomas added that nuTsie was unlikely to grow unless it was made more user-friendly.

"The Web site was kind of disorganized," Thomas said.