Melodeo on Tuesday said it plans to help music fans stream their iTunes digital-music playlists to mobile phones.
Privately held Melodeo, which already delivers Web-based audio clips to phones, said the service--now in test mode--will enable consumers to listen to digital music on the go without a portable player. It also will help listeners access songs in their iTunes library on more than one personal computer.
Melodeo is considering various revenue models for the service, which comes ahead of Apple's expected launch this month of its music-playing iPhone. The company could charge monthly fees or software download fees, or it could play audio advertisements, according to David Dederer, Melodeo's vice president for music services.
While consumers can buy songs through Apple for 99 cents per song, Melodeo is not selling copies of songs for consumers to store on their phones--it simply plays songs based on those stored in a customer's iTunes library.
This means that it can charge low fees, as it would only have to pay the same usage fees paid by Web-based radio services, a tenth of a cent per song play, Dederer said.
"We're doing everything we can to follow the current legal guidelines and standard industry practices where the legal guidelines are not crystal-clear," said Dederer, adding that the low price may lead digital-music listeners who do not pay for songs they swap with friends to subscribe to the service.
Melodeo, which delivers audio clips to customers of wireless-service providers such as AT&T and Alltel, expects the first version of the service to launch in 6 to 12 weeks, according to Dederer, who said he hopes to be able to announce a carrier deal by then.
While the first version of the service is going to be limited to lists from iTunes libraries, future versions will include playlists from other digital-music services.