Penn State and Napster Offer 'Free' Music?

[MacRumors]

Excite.com reports that Penn State University is planning to offer "free digital music listening and limited downloading" to their students..

Rosenberger said students will be able to stream music at no cost. They will also be able to download a song and move it to a digital music player for a brief period of time for free, he said. Students who want to download the song permanently or burn it to a CD, will have to pay "small fee," he said.

The service is said to be based on an agreement between Penn State and Napster, which offers an unlimited listening service to its customers for a fixed money fee. As noted in the quote, these songs are only available for use on the individual's computer, and may not be moved to digital players or burned to CD without additional fees.

The service will begin in January and will be funded through an existing $160/semester IT fee the students already pay.

Like many college students, however, Penn State's students also seem to be taken by iTunes' sharing abilities:

Andrew DiSabitino (senior-civil engineering) uses iTunes sharing through a local network at his fraternity house
....
"I don't even know how I'd improve upon [iTunes], it's great," he said.

[arn]

Napster's stepping it up too.

This does seem like a good deal for them... same logic... students who use Napster may eventually use it for their pay for download service.

One thing they need to know - they won't be able to use those songs on their iPod if they ever want one. Which could be a big negative.

Suddenly, Apple's local iTunes sharing may be the best feature they've added.... because it provides to all colleges what this napster deal provides to Penn State.

arn

[raiderz182]

who goes to penn state, give me a w00t! =D

[Frisco]

Originally posted by arn
Napster's stepping it up too.

This does seem like a good deal for them... same logic... students who use Napster may eventually use it for their pay for download service.

One thing they need to know - they won't be able to use those songs on their iPod if they ever want one. Which could be a big negative.

Suddenly, Apple's local iTunes sharing may be the best feature they've added.... because it provides to all colleges what this napster deal provides to Penn State.

arn

NO iPod! Well then it's a waste of time!

[jxyama]

when will these services learn that no one wants to "rent" music?

curious to see how the students will react to this. no doubt some will claim that they'd rather have their IT fee reduced than be used for this kind of music subscription they don't need/want. not to mention parents if they are paying the tuition.

[marcelo002]

w00t!

wish we had made a deal with itunes instead of napster

[synthetickittie]

w00t!... wait no I got to Boston University, but we play you guys this weekend in Connecticut. Im on the inline hockey team here and we'll be playing 4 games this weekend with you being one of them. Any of you wouldnt happen to play for them would you?

[physicsnerd]

Umm, let me get this stright. If you're a student at Penn State part of your fees go to pay for this music service. However, to take advantage of this music service you must own a Windows 2K/XP machine. So if you don't have a 2K or XP box you're paying for other people to listen to music?

What about all the students who are still running NT/95/98/Me or Mac/Linux/Solaris/ect? While I'd bet a good 80 to 90% are running 2K or XP what is the school doing about the rest? If I was a student at Penn State I'd be asking for a partial refund of my fees. How do you Penn students feel about your fees going to this?

[SiliconAddict]

The service will begin in January and will be funded through an existing $160/semester IT fee the students already pay.

Wait a sec. Hold the phone. Stop the presses. So basically a student is being forced to PAY for it through this $160 per semester thing for IT. So in actuality they ARE paying for the music. Explain to me where the free is? And for those that don't care to use Napster are still paying for the music. Ummm I'd call that screwing the student over and I wouldn't exactly expect them to be too happy about it.

[Frisco]

Originally posted by SiliconAddict
Wait a sec. Hold the phone. Stop the presses. So basically a student is being forced to PAY for it through this $160 per semester thing for IT. So in actuality they ARE paying for the music. Explain to me where the free is? And for those that don't care to use Napster are still paying for the music. Ummm I'd call that screwing the student over and I wouldn't exactly expect them to be too happy about it.

Yeah it's way to complicated--that's one of the reasons Napster 2 will fail. If you have to think about it--why bother?

[ITR 81]

Basically they pay no matter what. Screw that. I think this will just drive more folks to buy iPods and use iTunes.

I had a total of 6 PC friends today ask me about buying a new or used iPod as they want one for Christmas and get access to Music lib. since they already have iTunes 4.1

I know I've switch 12 folks into using iTunes 4.1 and dumping Winamp and out of that 12, 4 of them have bought new Mac's! I know of two others that are waiting for next G5's to come out next yr.

[NavyIntel007]

I've talked to friends who tried the new Napster and they say "it sucks."

They aren't the type that are going to pay for music anyway so they might not be iTunes customers. It's still a sign of the second death of Napster.

[mrsebastian]

free!? nothing is free, unless you're stealing, i mean sharing it

why don't companies like the new napster and buymusic get it? people are not willing to deal with the b#ll***** of fine print. offer me the product at a specific price and once i buy it, i'm free to do what i want with it. i'm not going to rent my music, i don't want to hear that i can listen to this song on 1 computer only or i'm not allowed to burn that song to a cd... and that's why apple gets my business! yes there are some restrictions, but not enough that i've ever noticed them.

[Java]

Originally posted by SiliconAddict
Wait a sec. Hold the phone. Stop the presses. So basically a student is being forced to PAY for it through this $160 per semester thing for IT. So in actuality they ARE paying for the music. Explain to me where the free is? And for those that don't care to use Napster are still paying for the music. Ummm I'd call that screwing the student over and I wouldn't exactly expect them to be too happy about it.

If I was attending PSU, I would be demanding a discount on my IT fees. I wouldn't want to be paying for a service that I am not using.

[mikeyredk]

Originally posted by marcelo002
w00t!

wish we had made a deal with itunes instead of napster

HEY LISTEN ALL PENN STATE STUDENTS EMAIL THE PRESIDENT TO SWITCH TO ITUNES.

Below is an email conversation between me and the VP of student relations more to come

On Thu, 06 Nov 2003 16:14:46, Office of the President wrote:

> Dear Manoj:
>
> Thanks for your email concerning the agreement with Napster. The
> pilot program that will be tested in the Spring is only available to
> Windows 2000 and XP users. With the addition of certain software, it will
> also run on Macs. Information on the new music service is available on the
> Web at http://live.psu.edu/story/4583p
>
> I appreciate your concern about the service's accessibility and
> will share your email with the appropriate individuals. Thanks again for
> writing.
>
> Sincerely,
> Steve MacCarthy
> Vice President for University Relations
>
>
> At 11:45 AM 11/6/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> >Dear President Graham Spanier,
> > A recent event tied to the legalization of download music
> > services is great for
> >the music industry and allows us as students to do the morally right thing and
> >pay for music. Yet your recent proposal with Napster, which is still rumors,
> >has me wary since I use an Apple Macintosh computer. I know the school is
> >Pro-Windows but you still have to recognize the fact that there are
> >Faculty and
> >Students who love there Macintoshes. I encourage you to change your mind and
> >go with Apple's ITunes Music Store since it is crossed platform. Now
> >Apple has
> >some strong backers with Pepsi and now McDonalds giving away songs this
> >service
> >has a great chance of surviving. If you choose Napster you are leaving out a
> >portion of your Faculty and Students.
> >
> > Written
> > by a Penn State Student,
> > Manoj
> > Aggarwal
> >
> >msa173@psu.edu

IF WE GIVE EM HELL AND TELL THEM HOW THE STUDENTS OF PENN STATE ALREADY HAVE CHOOSEN ITUNES OVER NAPSTER WHO KNOWS WHATS GOING TO HAPPEN

sorry for the yelling

[mikeyredk]

Originally posted by Java
If I was attending PSU, I would be demanding a discount on my IT fees. I wouldn't want to be paying for a service that I am not using.

no
its not like that we pay 160 bucks upfront for internet access and stuff like that and for the computer labs
IM GOING TO GIVE EM HELL if they change the price

[varmit]

I am a Penn State student. This will only be avaliable for students that live on campus, which at UP is about 13,000 students. (Thats number is from the Collegian, so it might not be reliable.) We can download and "briefly" move it to a mp3 player, I don't know if the music times out after a week or something but it obviously gets deleted some how after a certain time or becomes rendered usless when the player is hooked back up to the PC. To permanently keep it, the student has to put out more money, so if you want to keep, shell out more because PSU wont pay for it. AND ITS WINDOWS ONLY! Hell, the dorms are already using iTunes to the fullest, and the school is being completely bias by going with a Windows only client. I think we are getting something for free here, because that IT payment would go up a few dollars, because PSU is low on money at the moment, really low, digging into our trust fund at the moment. People who don't use the service would be in an up roar over being charged more, so I would say free of charge for the short time we get to keep the song.

[varmit]

I know the school is Pro-Windows but you still have to recognize the fact that there are Faculty and Students who love there Macintoshes.

Actually, the number of Macs in the computer labs has jumped up to about 25% of all computers on campus (Lab, Staff, and ones in the Hub). I think the IT guys like them because they don't have to come and fix them. Because I'm one of those guys that has to go and fix the PCs that are always down somewhere in the building.

[mikeyredk]

Originally posted by varmit
I am a Penn State student. This will only be avaliable for students that live on campus, which at UP is about 13,000 students. (Thats number is from the Collegian, so it might not be reliable.) We can download and "briefly" move it to a mp3 player, I don't know if the music times out after a week or something but it obviously gets deleted some how after a certain time or becomes rendered usless when the player is hooked back up to the PC. To permanently keep it, the student has to put out more money, so if you want to keep, shell out more because PSU wont pay for it. AND ITS WINDOWS ONLY! Hell, the dorms are already using iTunes to the fullest, and the school is being completely bias by going with a Windows only client. I think we are getting something for free here, because that IT payment would go up a few dollars, because PSU is low on money at the moment, really low, digging into our trust fund at the moment. People who don't use the service would be in an up roar over being charged more, so I would say free of charge for the short time we get to keep the song.

you forgot the other campuses with dorms like Mckeesport, erie, etc..

[yosoyjay]

Originally posted by mikeyredk
I know the school is Pro-Windows but you still have to recognize the fact that there are Faculty and Students who love there Macintoshes.

Oh man! I bet the president of Penn St. cringed when he saw the word there. Now your cause is hopeless.

[varmit]

The relative proportion of Macs on campus has fallen in the past 10 years, Harwood said. While Windows was once equally popular as the Mac on campus, it now accounts for 75 percent of machines in labs.

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive...ihealth-01.asp

[mikeyredk]

Originally posted by yosoyjay
Oh man! I bet the president of Penn St. cringed when he saw the word there. Now your cause is hopeless.

he doesn't actually read this his Minions readed it

[mikeyredk]

my response
based on some comments made by varmit

Dear Steve MacCarthy
I understand that we can use any piece of windows software but, the fact is it cost a lot of money over three hundred dollars. The fact is that most. I am sure that you read the collegian up at University Park there is this one article that you should read if you haven't the URL is:
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive...03dnews-03.asp

There are lots of students who are going to be upset that in the future when you have to charge for this service because I doubt Penn State is going to be flipping the bill for long.

Here is another Penn state student reaction towards the Napster Plan. This quote is unabridged and the student is also a technical support up at the Park

"I am a Penn State student. This will only be available for students that live on campus, which at UP is about 13,000 students. (That’s number is from the Collegian, so it might not be reliable.) We can download and "briefly" move it to a mp3 player, I don't know if the music times out after a week or something but it obviously gets deleted some how after a certain time or becomes rendered useless when the player is hooked back up to the PC. To permanently keep it, the student has to put out more money, so if you want to keep, shell out more because PSU wont pay for it. AND ITS WINDOWS ONLY! Hell, the dorms are already using ITunes to the fullest, and the school is being completely bias by going with a Windows only client. I think we are getting something for free here, because that IT payment would go up a few dollars, because PSU is low on money at the moment, really low, digging into our trust fund at the moment. People who don't use the service would be in an up roar over being charged more, so I would say free of charge for the short time we get to keep the song."


What I am asking for is equality and diversity. As Penn State says Diversity is an integral part of the University's strategic planning process.

Thankfully,
Manoj Aggarwal

[physicsnerd]

Originally posted by mikeyredk
my response
based on some comments made by varmit

....

Manoj Aggarwal

Why don't you ask him why they didn't do something with iTunes?

I mean I don't know how much the school is paying a month for this service but look at it this way. There are 400,000ish songs on itunes (I think). They can all be had for at most 0.99cents. So you're looking at a maximum of $400,000 to buy every song on itunes and I bet that apple would make you deal if you were to buy that many. Each song can be put on upto three machines. So you buy a computer to act as an iTunes streaming server and stick several network cards in it. Give each network card a different subnet and you're off. I'd bet with 3 computers you could cover dorms completely. Um, of course I think there's a streaming limit on iTunes I but can see Apple making a "college" streaming server version of iTunes where there is no streaming limit. Just a thought.

[mikeyredk]

because physicsnerd since this is now implemented we have to play this politically.

also with the deal by buying so many songs look at pepsi they didn't get a discount for buying one million songs