Free music service debuts for students

August 25, 2006 —

A new entertainment service is being offered for SVSU students and faculty. Known as Ruckus, it will enable the legal downloading of chiefly music, but also a selection of movies and television series.

Ruckus works by installing a player onto a computer from which downloaded media can be accessed. A growing library of 1.5 million songs is available for free to SVSU students who wish to utilize the Ruckus service. However, in order to permanently download or purchase tracks for the purpose of burning to a CD, students must pay by the track or album. Over 7,000 movies are also available, and unlimited access to these titles is available for a $15 per semester.

According to Ken Schindler, executive director of Information Technology Services, SVSU has acquired a separate server to sustain Ruckus. The benefit of this new server will be that on campus Ruckus downloads will be handled solely by that server, allowing for great download speed without clogging up the main server bandwidth.

While the music service is free for all students, on campus and off, downloads from off campus will be routed through Ruckus servers rather than the new server for use on campus, resulting in greater speed for on-campus students. Wireless hotspots on campus will also likely be slower than downloading to a PC directly connected to the network.

The University decided to offer the Ruckus service for legal and budgetary concerns. Since the service is free for SVSU other than the one-time cost of the server purchase, it is anticipated that Ruckus will cause overall reduced internet bandwidth usage by reducing illegal downloading, which will in effect reduce SVSU costs.

Legality is also a concern, as Schindler says Ruckus offers students a "legal avenue to access entertainment."

Schindler also states that around 320 students have already signed up for the service. Faculty and staff interest has been minimal, although unlike students, they will be charged a $5.99 per month fee for use of Ruckus.

Another aspect of the service is "Ruckus to-Go", which for a $20 fee per term allows subscribers to transfer downloaded songs to "PlaysForSure Subscription" compatible MP3 players.

SVSU is one of the first universities in Michigan to offer Ruckus.

More information about the new music service is available at svsu.edu/ruckus.