A 15-year-old has created a free-music service by harnessing YouTube’s vast library of music videos.

David Nelson, 15, swapped public school for online classes to devote more time to Muziic

Muziic, created by teen developer David Nelson, has built an iTunes-like interface on top of YouTube. The service enables users to stream YouTube’s music to their PCs without fiddling with videos. Users can build playlists and organize songs in a way similar to iTunes.

CNET blogger Matt Rosoff first wrote about the service and gave it a favorable review. "Any song that’s been uploaded to YouTube is available in Muziic," Rosoff wrote. "This includes music unavailable on most commercial services, like the full Pink Floyd performance at Live 8 and Led Zeppelin’s one-off performance in 2007."

I downloaded Muziic and this is a slick piece of software. Streamlining YouTube’s music experience is an idea that I suspect a lot of people have considered, and one that Universal Music Group appears to be pursing. Last week, CNET reported that the largest of the top four recording companies, is negotiating to create a premium music-video site in partnership with YouTube.

So, the Nelsons are to be congratulated for coming up with a great idea and developing a very cool service.

But here comes the cold water: this site has yet to receive the blessing of Google, the large recording companies or the scores of film and TV rights holders who filmed the many live performances on YouTube. I doubt these companies will welcome a service that makes it easy for users to avoid YouTube ads. They certainly won’t allow the Nelsons to profit without at least receiving compensation.