Nayio Media on Wednesday launched its melody-based music search tool, which can identify tunes consumers hum into a computer’s microphone. The Web-based service cross-references the hummed tune with Napster’s library of more than 3 million songs and delivers a list of potential matches, each accompanied by a direct link to where consumers can listen to the songs for free on Napster. “To date, digital music technology development has focused on compression and sound quality,” said Jay Bose, chief operating officer and general manager of Nayio Media. “Our patented muGene technology focuses instead on ascertaining the unique ‘genetic’ structure of any given piece of music. Napster’s enormous collection of music is the perfect platform to allow us to show off this technology.” San Mateo, Calif.-based Nayio’s humming identification service has been available since 2003 in South Korea for SK Telecom mobile subscribers. In addition to the song identification tool, the company offers Nayio Studio, which compares a user’s vocal performance to an actual recording and graphs the melody and pitch to provide a score on accuracy. The feature also lets users create and share their own music videos.

Links: http://tinyurl.com/yyxyg5 http://www.napster.com http://www.nayio.com