Ruckus and Labels To Save Our Youth

Filed in archive Companies , Major Labels , Society & Public Policy on January 30, 2007

Music distributor Ruckus Network focuses on the college market. They had limited success selling subscriptions with only 20 institutional customers.

Meanwhile the recording labels accepted that college kids with limited income are more likely to acquire music without paying for it.

So the two partnered last year to offer ad-supported music that was free to students. The program required schools to install a local server. Customers increased somewhat to 100 schools and hundreds of thousands of students.

Now Ruckus has launched a new wrinkle. Sort of. Universities need no local server. Students can subscribe directly. If you've got an .edu address, you can get free ad-wrapped tunes. But there are lots of restrictions. Don't confuse Ruckus "free" with radio "free", which is always free, anywhere, anytime, on any radio.

The music uses DRM. The service is $9 per month if you admit that you're not a student. It only plays on your PC. It's another $5 to be able to transfer songs to Microsoft Windows-compatible portable MP3 players. It doesn't play on Apple iPods or Microsoft Zunes.

And they think this is an attractive option to college students downloading free via P2P or a friend's iPod?