The Traveler

Issue date: 1/31/07 Section: Life & Style

Media Credit: Larry Ash Senior Lisa Udouj explores Ruckus.com Monday while waiting for the start of her Photojournalism II class.

A new addition that could cause heavy competition among popular music services such as iTunes and Napster, is Ruckus Network, an ad-supported music downloading service that is now free to all college students.

The Herndon, Va., company recently expanded allowing college students nationwide free and legal access to its music. Students with a valid university e-mail account can access more than two million tracks along with movies, TV shows and music videos.

"For Ruckus, it is all about delivering a great user experience for our target audience -the 16.5 million full-time college students in the United States," said Tim Hurley, partner and managing director of BluePoint Venture Marketing for Ruckus.

Junior Zack Ridenoure believes in the concept of Ruckus. The service is a good opportunity for students to get the music they want, and the fact that it appeals especially to college students by being free is even better, Ridenoure said.

Ruckus not only supplies a sizeable collection of entertainment to satisfy any avid fan, but also provides a social outlet for its users. Students can create personal profiles, socialize with users, and also have the ability to share and download tracks from other users' playlists.

No other music downloading service offers social-networking capabilities, and no other social networking sites offer great, free content., Hurley said.

Before being entitled to Ruckus' many amenities, each user must create an account and install the Ruckus Player.

The music library might be an adjustment to some users who are used to the iTunes setup. Rather than listing songs in order of relevancy to a search, album covers of artists are listed instead. Users must click on a particular album to find their songs of interest.

Many might wonder how Ruckus is legal. Ruckus gets its music collection from record labels and distributors, according to its Web site. Each time a track is played, Ruckus pays the record label.

Ruckus uses Digital Rights Management, which protects songs by preventing the transfer of songs outside of the Ruckus site so agreements can be maintained with record labels. It ensures all songs are being downloaded by Ruckus users.

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