Penn State’s Music Woes
When Ruckus dropped off the Internet in February we voiced our disdain– a feeling shared by college students across the country. I recently dropped the ITS Helpdesk an email asking for an update on the situation.
The loss of Ruckus was completely unforeseen by both customers and university partners, including Penn State. The University administration will make every effort to disclose details about a new music replacement, should they become known. Updates will be posted at http://legalmedia.psu.edu/
Napster, after being bought out by Best Buy, has recently relaunched. It seems Napster is in the perfect position to snap up Ruckus’ former clientele. The updated Napster service offers the following:
• Get five MP3s each month to download, with their choice of songs from the Napster MP3 library that covers all types of music from all the major labels and includes the largest catalog of independent artists available.
• Listen to any track, as often as they like, in CD quality from Napster’s catalog of more than seven million songs.
• Choose from more than 60 commercial-free radio stations and more than 1,400 expertly programmed playlists.
• Discover new music and artists through personalized recommendation tools.
• Play MP3s on any MP3 player, including iPod®, iPhone® and music-enabled MP3 mobile phones.
All of this and a catalog of over 7 million tracks? Sounds good right? Everything isn’t as sweet as you might think. First, you can only play those five MP3s you get a month on your iPod. And, outside those 5 downloadable songs a month, all of the other music you have is stuck on your computer.
Admittedly, this is a much better deal than Ruckus ever was. Whether or not Penn State decides to sign a deal with Napster is still up in the air. You can be sure that Onward State will have the updates on our music situation (or lack thereof) as news unfolds.
You can also see updates at Penn State’s Legal Media Download website. The page however, is still graced by the Ruckus logo.
Still reeling from the loss of Ruckus? Check out our Life After Ruckus post for a rundown of other (and mostly better and free) music services.
Your ad blocker is on.
Please choose an option below.
Purchase a Subscription!