University signs agreement with Napster

he University is teaming up with Napster to provide students access to the largest digital music library available online. The recently announced agreement--the first of its kind between a private university and the online music giant--makes Napster's Premium Service available to the 3,700 students living in residence halls, in an effort administrators hope will discourage the use of illegal file-sharing programs.

In addition, Napster and the Eastman School of Music will be developing ways to offer Napster members original content from Eastman students and faculty.

"Digital distribution of entertainment media is definitely the wave of the future," says University Provost Charles Phelps, who chairs a Task Force on Technology for the national Joint Committee on Peer-to-Peer File Sharing and who will join a group of panelists in a discussion Monday, February 16, at the University on ways the record industry, colleges, and universities are addressing illegal file sharing. "I am very proud that the University will be at the forefront of this emerging trend by offering students easy access to a high quality, legitimate music service."

Napster's Premium Service will allow Rochester students to stream and locally download an unlimited amount of music from Napster's digital library of over 500,000 tracks. Students will also get access to over 50 fully interactive radio stations, videos on demand, decades of Billboard charts, a powerful recommendation engine, an online magazine, and additional community features like the ability to see other members' collections and send tracks to friends. Permanent downloads--to burn to CDs or transfer to any of 60 portable music devices--can be purchased for 99 cents each or $9.95 for an album.

Beginning later this semester, the service will be available to students who live in residence halls on the River Campus and at the Eastman School of Music. The University will explore opportunities to extend the Premium Service to all students in the fall of 2004, and, additionally, to offer the service at a discounted rate to faculty and staff.

The monthly fees for the Premium Service will be funded by the University, not by individual students, through the 2005 spring semester, at which point the service will be evaluated and permanent funding arrangements within the University will be determined.

"We intend to mount a vigorous effort to educate members of the University community about their personal responsibilities to observe copyright regulations," Phelps adds. "The digital world--and our own institution's role as the creator of 'intellectual property'--demand that we respect the principles of ethical use for digital data and products."

To read more about the University's agreement with Napster, visit www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=1685.

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