[Dixielandjazz] Major Label Music Marketing

[Steve Barbone]

Here's a new twist in the music download marketing segment. Free music
downloads to students.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

Big Labels Offer Free Music to College Students Free to students with an
e-mail address ending in .edu, Ruckus will rely on ads.

NY TIMES By SAUL HANSELL - January 22, 2007

In one more attempt to counter music piracy, major music labels have agreed
to support a service that will offer free music downloads ‹ with some
substantial restrictions ‹ to any college student.

The service, from Ruckus Network, will be supported by advertising on its
Web site and on the software used to download and play songs. The four major
record labels and several independent labels have agreed to license their
music to Ruckus at lower rates than they charge other mass market music
services on the theory that college students would rather steal songs than
pay the $10 to $15 a month that such services normally charge.

Phil Leigh, president of Inside Digital Media, a research firm, said that
the move also represented a way for labels to experiment with
advertising-supported music, a model that he said might be better for the
labels than radio, because they could share in the advertising revenue.
Music publishers, which represent the composers, are paid by radio stations,
but the labels, which represent performing artists, are not.

Ruckus had originally hoped universities would pay a fee to offer free
downloads to their students, thereby reducing the legal risks and some of
the network expense associated with the use of illegal file-sharing
networks. Only 20 universities agreed.

Last year, however, Ruckus decided to switch to a free,
advertising-supported approach, although it still required universities to
agree and to install a server on their campus networks.

That increased participation to about 100 schools, with ³several hundred
thousand² active users, said Michael J. Bebel, chief executive of Ruckus.

The new service, which is available now, does not require a university to
participate. Rather, it will be made available to those who have an e-mail
address ending in .edu, the top-level domain associated with educational
institutions.

Because faculty members and many alumni also use an .edu e-mail address, Mr.
Bebel said that the service would ask users if they were students, staff
members or alumni. Those who are not students will be asked to pay $8.95 a
month for the service.

Ruckus uses Microsoft¹s Windows media technology, so songs can be played
only on a user¹s personal computer. For $4.99 a month, users can buy the
right to transfer the songs to portable devices compatible with the
Microsoft format, including those made by SanDisk and Creative.

But the music will not play on Microsoft¹s Zune player or, more important,
on the Apple iPod.

These restrictions have led to at least some protests on campus that the
service discriminates against users of iPods and Macintosh computers (also
not supported).

Mr. Bebel says that about 60 percent of the students on the campuses
offering the Ruckus service had registered for it.

³Even iPod users on campus will use Ruckus because they can find music they
like before they buy it from Apple or get it another way,² Mr. Bebel said.