Yahoo will provide its Music Unlimited subscription service to Stanford University students at no cost to them, in a deal with the University announced yesterday, reports ClickZ. Universities have become receptive to legal file-sharing programs in order to reduce illegal downloads and minimize drain on bandwidth.

The Stanford service will be the first school music program for Yahoo, which launched its music subscription service in May and has quickly attracted subscribers by undercutting rivals' prices, writes CNET.

Unlike some other universities, Stanford will not pay for students' subscriptions or use student fees to subsidize the costs; rather, during the first year of the pilot project, the costs will be covered by an anonymous donor.

Stanford students will have access to music downloads and commercial-free internet streams. Stanford students will be able to share songs via Yahoo messenger and transfer songs to MP3 players and other mobile devices. After they graduate, the students can pay 79 cents a song or subscribe to Yahoo Music Unlimited at a discounted rate.