2008 Woodie Awards
Ruckus trying to stay free for students, increase membership
Jessica Medeiros
Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: News
02/29/08 - From iTunes and Aeres to LimeWire and BearShare, there are many music downloading programs available on-line; however, they are often associated with drawbacks such as fees, viruses or lawsuits.
Unlike many of these programs, Ruckus, a digital media downloading service, provides free and legal music, videos, games and television downloading, and was created specifically for college students.
Ruckus is free to any student with a university e-mail address, and is used by more than one million students at more than 1,100 universities, according to Director of Corporate Development Chris Lawson. About 4,000 of these users are University of Rhode Island students, Lawson said.
"Ruckus was started because we knew that students are the most engaged users of digital media and that we could provide a free, legal and safe way for them to get it," Lawson said.
Lawson said the benefits to using Ruckus reach all levels, from the artists featured on the site to the university and its students.
"The record labels and their artists get compensated, the schools potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars on network costs and students get unlimited access to a library of over 3.5 million tracks," Lawson said. "Ruckus is the world's first and only music discovery service built specifically for college students, made specifically to provide a solution for all of these stakeholders."
Ruckus, which was created in 2003, first came to URI about two years ago when it still relied on revenue from subscriptions.
URI's Director of Networking and Telecommunications David Porter said he came across Ruckus while researching music downloading services for the university, and was impressed with the program.
"When we were first looking at bringing Ruckus to URI," he said, "it had a fee attached to it. However, we felt it was worth it for the university to encourage students not to copy music illegally."
URI received the service for free as a result of promoting Ruckus to universities throughout Rhode Island, ultimately recruiting about 5,000 new users for the new program.
Unlike many of these programs, Ruckus, a digital media downloading service, provides free and legal music, videos, games and television downloading, and was created specifically for college students.
Ruckus is free to any student with a university e-mail address, and is used by more than one million students at more than 1,100 universities, according to Director of Corporate Development Chris Lawson. About 4,000 of these users are University of Rhode Island students, Lawson said.
"Ruckus was started because we knew that students are the most engaged users of digital media and that we could provide a free, legal and safe way for them to get it," Lawson said.
Lawson said the benefits to using Ruckus reach all levels, from the artists featured on the site to the university and its students.
"The record labels and their artists get compensated, the schools potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars on network costs and students get unlimited access to a library of over 3.5 million tracks," Lawson said. "Ruckus is the world's first and only music discovery service built specifically for college students, made specifically to provide a solution for all of these stakeholders."
Ruckus, which was created in 2003, first came to URI about two years ago when it still relied on revenue from subscriptions.
URI's Director of Networking and Telecommunications David Porter said he came across Ruckus while researching music downloading services for the university, and was impressed with the program.
"When we were first looking at bringing Ruckus to URI," he said, "it had a fee attached to it. However, we felt it was worth it for the university to encourage students not to copy music illegally."
URI received the service for free as a result of promoting Ruckus to universities throughout Rhode Island, ultimately recruiting about 5,000 new users for the new program.