NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - As an added bonus to returning to campus this fall, more than 80,000 college students at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Minnesota will get a hefty monthly discount with RealNetworks' online music store.

RealNetworks said the program, whose online music library is called Rhapsody, is its first partnership with educational institutions and is designed to offer students an alternative to illegally downloading music for free.

The company's Rhapsody Internet jukebox service offer unlimited access to about 725,000 songs for less than $10 a month.

"By offering students legal alternatives to music piracy, we're investing in the future of the online music industry," Richard Wolpert, chief strategy officer of RealNetworks, said in a statement.

Berkeley, which began offering Rhapsody to students this week, is offering the service free to all undergraduate students through Oct. 31. After that, it will offer the service at a sharply reduced monthly price.

And more than 50,000 students at the University of Minnesota's four main campuses, including the Twin Cities, Duluth, Morris and Crookston, will have access to Rhapsody in early September.

Students will have the option of subscribing at a reduced monthly fee or signing up for three or 12-month subscriptions at a further discounted rate.

"We're excited to be offering our students an easy-to-use online music service where they can access their favorite tunes legally," Cliff Frost, director of communications and network services at Berkeley, said in a statement. "We see this as an excellent opportunity to help our students get in the habit of consuming music in a legal manner."