Avvenu, a new online music service, lets people share music stored on their PCs with other computer or mobile phone users. Using the free Avvenu Music Player, users can select tracks they want to share and send links to friends via e-mail. Recipients click on the link to listen to the songs for up to five days on standard Web browsers.

Avvenu supports audio files in MP3, AAC and WMA formats. Only tracks that are free of copy-protection restrictions can be streamed with the service. Users sharing their collections must have Apple’s iTunes music software on their Windows or Macintosh computer. Mobile phones must run Microsoft Windows Mobile software in order to listen to the audio files.

Recipients do not need to have iTunes or the Avvenu software on their computers to play back tracks.

According to Avvenu, their service is legal because recipients don’t retain copies of songs. The streams only work when there’s an Internet connection, and only for five days.

To share songs, users must download and install the Avvenu software. The beta version lets users share up to 250 tracks for free through Avvenu’s servers, though direct sharing imposes no limits.

via Mercury News