Illegally downloading music at ASU could be a thing of the past.
Ruckus, a music and movie file-sharing system, is allowing anybody with an ASU e-mail address to legally download songs for free and share music with other users on campus.
The company began offering its music service for free in January. Users will not have to pay for the service until 2007.
The service was launched at ASU last semester, but students had to pay $20 per semester to download songs.
Brad Vaughn, Ruckus' vice president for campus sales, said the company realized more students would be interested in the service if it were free.
"It really flourishes with a lot of users," he said.
Ruckus offers a library of one million songs. Users can also download and share songs from other people with Ruckus.
Vaughn said 1,100 ASU students signed up for the service last semester -- fewer than the company had hoped.
Although there will be no revenue coming in from music subscriptions, Vaughn said it was the best plan for the company.
Revenue will come from movies and television subscription fees and advertising, he added.
Vaughn said downloading films and television shows such as "The Matrix," "Caddy Shack" and "Desperate Housewives" will continue to require a subscription fee of $15 per
semester. It will cost $15 during the summer to download music.
During the summer months, there will be separate fees for the music and video services.
ASU Chief Information Officer William Lewis said the University was happy to offer the service to students and hopes that because it is now free, it will attract more people.
"As long as students are willing to watch advertising, then I think it's a good idea," he said.
ASU did not invest any money in the project and does not make any revenue from it, Lewis added.
ASU signed Ruckus in an effort to offer a convenient and legal way to download music, Lewis said.
Many users of illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing services, such as Kazaa and LimeWire, got in trouble because the services do not have the rights to the songs. ASU has not had problems.
Record companies have sued thousands of users of illegal downloading services.
Lawsuits will not be a problem for users of the service because Ruckus pays for the song rights, Vaughn said.
"Our goal is to make students have legal, free access to music," he said. "We have relationships with all the major and independent record companies."
Global business junior Jessica Tocora said she would like to use Ruckus, but not because she is afraid of downloading music illegally.
"LimeWire made my computer slow so I just stopped using it," she said. "But I don't download that much music anymore anyway."
Tocora said she would be willing to try out the video subscription service.
"[Fifteen dollars a semester] is cheaper than going out and renting movies," she said.
Reach the reporter at kristi.eaton@asu.edu.
