Returning Penn students powering up their computers in the fall will have a new feature available to them on the Penn network -- a free music subscription service.
Provost Ron Daniels recently approved a University-wide implementation of the Ruckus music subscription service for all Penn students connected to the network.
"The Provost heard from students that they were interested in pursuing this option and wanted to be responsive to their request," said Robin Beck, Vice President of Information Systems and Computing. "We believe that Ruckus will provide an attractive option for students among the many other music services that are available."
The subscriptions will be available free of charge for students but the service comes with a number of stipulations -- it is not compatible with Apple products, meaning that any students with Macintosh computers cannot access the server and no music will be downloadable to iPods.
The project was spear-headed by Undergraduate Assembly leaders interested in providing students with a lawful program to download music.
"We really wanted to work with the administration to get a service for Penn students ... so they have a legal alternative to explore their music tastes," said UA Chairman Brett Thalmann. "I think it will be very popular."
Thalmann said that the UA's "hands were tied" when it came to Apple's incompatibility with the Ruckus system.
"It's not something that we can control," he said. "There are no other services that exist for Mac users other than iTunes and they refuse to go into negotiations with schools."
Despite these conditions, Thalmann is optimistic that students will use the new service.
"Whether it has an effect on how much illegal downloading occurs has yet to be seen," he said. "But I think there will definitely be a lot of student interest especially because there is no cost."
Ruckus will be available to the University without charge because it is supported by advertisements.
"It does not cost the University anything other than the service base [and technical infrastructure] which is minimal," said UA Treasurer Sunny Patel.
According to Information Technology Project Leader for Information Systems and Computing Bill Kasenchar, the University will provide bandwidth for the service and will house a Ruckus server containing approximately 80,000 songs on Penn's network.
"The intention is that when a user is looking for a song it goes to that server first as opposed to going out onto the Internet," Kasenchar said, adding that for $.99 a song, students will be able to purchase songs which can then be transferred to iPods and other portable media devices.
The University and Ruckus are in the final stages of signing the service contract finalizing the deal, but everyone involved with the project is confident the service will debut this fall.
Students seem to be interested in trying the subscription but whether they will become serious users remains to be seen.
College senior Ben Weinberg thinks the service could benefit students and the University by avoiding legal repercussions with the recording industry.
"I think it would be good because it might deter people from downloading illegally," Weinberg said. "I would at least try it out and see how it works."
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