Ruckus Drops Licensing Fees, Makes Campus Music Service Free

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 22, 2007 - 10:10am.

Herndon, Va. - Marking a major shift in strategy, Ruckus, a legal music downloading service aimed at college campuses, said on Monday that it will stop charging licensing fees to colleges and universities, instead making its service available for free to all students with valid ".edu" e-mail addresses.

The company is hoping that its new advertising-supported model will greatly increase its user base.

Ruckus currently has contractual agreements with more than 100 schools, including the University of Maryland, Arizona State University, Georgia Tech, Indiana University and the University of Southern California (USC).

The service offers access to 2.1 million music tracks and, for an extra $15 a semester, 4,000 film and TV downloads. Members also gain access to a variety of social networking features.

Published in DMW Daily, January 22, 2007

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Comments

Ruckus was not charging

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on January 23, 2007 - 4:49pm.

Ruckus was not charging colleges for its service as of a year ago. They have an ad-supported model and this is how they are able to offer the service free to schools they strike affiliations with. For students at schools where they had no affiliation, students were charged $5.99 per month Thought we should clarify this point.