Music downloads are not freebies
Chris Corona
Issue date: 9/10/04 Section: The Edge
- Page 1 of 1
Within the last year, more than 20 universities have subscribed to music services such as Napster and MusicNet and offered their students discounted access, the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities said in a report to U.S. Congress.
They also noted that traffic devoted to illegal downloading of music has fallen at the colleges.
"Since the beginning of the last school year we have seen progress on all counts," said Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and co-chairman of the joint groups in a news conference. "A legion of college music fans who are receiving their music for free and getting the impression that music has no value are now being introduced to the idea that music does have value," Sherman said.
Pennsylvania State University was the first to offer students discounted music access through Napster last spring in a test program. Penn State President Graham Spanier said the program was a success and subscription access would span to all its other campuses. Up to 100,000 songs had been downloaded per day by the 12,000 students participating, he said.
Napster has announced eight university deals, while MusicNet, distributed through Cdigix, has signed six. RealNetworks said it concluded deals with the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Minnesota. Its service costs less than $3 per month per student.
According to James Huesmann, Western Illinois University's assistant provost for computers and information technology, getting Western students discounted access to an online music service isn't in the works yet, but is definitely something to consider.
"If the demand for it is there, then yes, this too could happen soon here at WIU," Huesmann said.
Plans to get an online music service available to Western will be discussed at the next council on Student Information Technology meeting on Mon., Sept. 20, at 4 p.m. in the Union Student Oranization Center.
They also noted that traffic devoted to illegal downloading of music has fallen at the colleges.
"Since the beginning of the last school year we have seen progress on all counts," said Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and co-chairman of the joint groups in a news conference. "A legion of college music fans who are receiving their music for free and getting the impression that music has no value are now being introduced to the idea that music does have value," Sherman said.
Pennsylvania State University was the first to offer students discounted music access through Napster last spring in a test program. Penn State President Graham Spanier said the program was a success and subscription access would span to all its other campuses. Up to 100,000 songs had been downloaded per day by the 12,000 students participating, he said.
Napster has announced eight university deals, while MusicNet, distributed through Cdigix, has signed six. RealNetworks said it concluded deals with the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Minnesota. Its service costs less than $3 per month per student.
According to James Huesmann, Western Illinois University's assistant provost for computers and information technology, getting Western students discounted access to an online music service isn't in the works yet, but is definitely something to consider.
"If the demand for it is there, then yes, this too could happen soon here at WIU," Huesmann said.
Plans to get an online music service available to Western will be discussed at the next council on Student Information Technology meeting on Mon., Sept. 20, at 4 p.m. in the Union Student Oranization Center.
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