Florida State University to sign deal with Apple

[MacBytes]

Category: News and Press Releases
Link: Florida State University to sign deal with Apple (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20040826105246)
Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)

Approved by Mudbug

[macridah]

Awesome ... i knew apple would start making deals with schools to make iTunes available to students. First iPods and now iTunes ... makes sense.

I bet schools that made deals with REAL and Napster are jealous right now.

[eric_n_dfw]

The article says that students at FSU will be able to download music for 99 cents per track. Were they going to block iTMS traffic before this decision? If the tracks cost the same as what everyone else pays then what's the "deal" they signed?

[srobert]

Florida State University is on the verge of finalizing a deal with Apple Computer, Inc. -- a deal that would provide free iTunes software to students and allow them to download music for 99 cents per song.

Huh? What did I miss here. The deal is to provide a FREE software for FREE? No rebates on songs downloaded? I must have missed something.

[billyboy]

I want the name of the salesman from Apple who pulled off this "deal", he is a genius! He gave nothing away and the uni think they have a great deal. They do, but its the same deal as all of us get at home.

[stoid]

The 'deal' is that FSU gets to install iTunes on all the computers, maybe even with a little customization of interface to slap an FSU logo in there.

They went with Apple because that way only interested students had to pay, and the students get to keep their music after they graduate.

[valve83]

Eh, what? I don't get it, haha. Either it's a typo, or I'm slow, or there really isn't any sort of a "deal."

[MarcelV]

Just out of curiousity, you can stream playlists within iTunes to others.
Does this mean you can stream any of the the playlists on all of the computers? Which means there's an advantage of the 'deal'.....

[dotnina]

Just out of curiousity, you can stream playlists within iTunes to others.
Does this mean you can stream any of the the playlists on all of the computers? Which means there's an advantage of the 'deal'.....

I know that at my university, if someone else has an iTunes library up, you can listen to their songs as long as you're close enough (physically? networkically? not sure exactly).

Anyway, I bet this article will be confusing for a lot of people. That they're giving out iTunes software "for free" will lead some people to think iTunes normally costs money. :rolleyes:

[applebum]

I know that at my university, if someone else has an iTunes library up, you can listen to their songs as long as you're close enough (physically? networkically? not sure exactly).


For some reason, I am picturing a dorm hall with all the doors open and one guy has his powerbook hooked to his stereo, and his stereo turned all the way up... :p

[Porchland]

Awesome ... i knew apple would start making deals with schools to make iTunes available to students. First iPods and now iTunes ... makes sense.

I bet schools that made deals with REAL and Napster are jealous right now.

It depends on whether those deals were exclusive. I wondered reading the article on Florida State's web site whether the agreement would prohibit FSU from striking similar deals with other providers -- particularly since FSU is not paying anything for this deal.

I'm not sure it would be such a bad thing from a competitive standpoint if school's struck nonexclusive deals. If I were enrolling at, say, the University of Tennessee this month, I'd like to think that I could download from Napster, MusicMatch, MNS, Apple, Sony or Real, like anyone else in the free world.

If a school is going to make the deal exclusive, the school should get something in return: 100 free downloads a semester for each student, cheaper downloads, etc.

[formatc]

FSU is making a good faith effort to address piracy by offering a legal alternative. That means a lot in the eyes of the law.

If RIAA took a university to court, and the judge asked them "What have you done to combat piracy?", FSU now has an answer.

How much is that worth? Millions potentially.

[stoid]

Th only problem is that unless Apple changed something for this 'deal' Student A could download an iTMS track, but Student B would get a Protected file error if he tried to play it back. If students only buy tracks from the iTMS for their iTunes shared collections, this kills the music library sharing feature of iTunes.

[nagromme]

That IS pretty funny :D

But if nothing else, for Apple it's marketing--putting this into students hands more directly/easily--and for FSU it's answering a current issue that many schools are trying to do something with.

Even if in the end, neither FSU nor Apple spends a dime :)

Apple's had a program like this available for some time--looks like some schools are taking the bait.

You can't really compare this to discounts on music rental (like those other school deals), since Apple doesn't rent music at all.

[Frump]

WOW! What a deal, free software and music for 99c a song. Bitch slap me if I am wrong, but where exactly is the news in this article? Now I know people will say that there is more to this than meets the eye. But why not report the part that does not meet the eye! Come on what is it coming to when they start reporting nothing and still make it news.

NEWS FLASH: Apple makes I-Tunes available for free from their website. Rumor has it that it is also compatible with windows!

Frump.

[applemacdude]

Maybe free tunes will be given out in their dorm/food package....

[g4cubed]

WOW! What a deal, free software and music for 99c a song. Bitch slap me if I am wrong, but where exactly is the news in this article? Now I know people will say that there is more to this than meets the eye. But why not report the part that does not meet the eye! Come on what is it coming to when they start reporting nothing and still make it news.

NEWS FLASH: Apple makes I-Tunes available for free from their website. Rumor has it that it is also compatible with windows!

Frump.

As formatc stated above and I have to agree with him, it's about covering the university a$$ from a law suit or legal action taken by the RIAA