"Free" Music for College Students

Music labels are trying to get creative to derail the steady flow of pirated music on college campuses. The latest initiative comes from Ruckus Networks, which now makes music downloads available free to college students.

All you need is an email address ending in .edu, but Ruckus will ask faculty members and alumni to pay $8.95 a month for the service. Four major music labels and several independents are licensing their music to Ruckus at lower rates because they know college students are sharing music illegally rather than paying the typical $15 a month for some online music services.

In its first incarnation, Ruckus made the service available on college campuses where schools paid for the service, but only 20 schools signed up, the New York Times reports. So the company switched to an advertising-supported model, so kids have to listen to a few ads in exchange for free downloads.

From the there's-no-such-thing-as-a-free-lunch file, however, the catch is the music is only free if it stays on students' computers. Ruckus uses Microsoft's Windows media technology, so for $4.99 a month, songs can be transferred to portable music players that support only Microsoft's format, including SanDisk and Creative players---but not on the Zune! And forget playing them on iPods, period.

Despite student protests, Ruckus reports that 60 percent of students on campuses which offer the Ruckus service are registering for it. At the very least, they can listen to music on their computers and decide if they want to procure songs they like another way for their MP3 players.

Related links:

Why College Kids are Turning Down Free (Legal) Music
A Survey of U.S. Universities Peer-to-Peer Policies
P2P Primer for Parents