• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, December 14, 2006

Digital music company Napster is partnering with a new online service, Nayio.com, that allows Web users to search for songs by humming a melody for 10-15 seconds into their computers' microphone.

After users hum at least eight notes of the song, Nayio will match it to a track from Napster's library and offer users a free stream of the track. Users also will have the option of purchasing a digital download from Napster, which will share revenue with Nayio.

Nayio, which launched Wednesday, currently offers only about 3,000 songs from Napster's library of 3 million songs. The roster of available tracks includes most of the Billboard Top 500 as well as older music, including songs by The Beatles, according to Jay Bose, chief operating officer and general manager of San Mateo, Calif.-based Nayio Media, Inc.

Bose said Nayio plans to add more tracks from Napster to the service, increasing to "critical mass of 8,000 to 10,000 songs pretty quickly."

For Napster, the deal marks one of several recent moves to distribute and sell tracks via partnerships with other companies. Several months ago, Napster struck a distribution deal with the Web site of Vibe magazine. Napster also partnered with Samsung to create an NFL site, Samsung.com/NFL. That site provides music playlists for NFL football players and offers links to Napster streams of the songs.