I don’t pay for my music. Ever since Napster became a household name, I’ve been leading a life of crime and greed. When a new album comes out, I don’t wait in line at Sam Goody, I just go to the right website and click the right link. No artist has seen royalties from me since I was eleven. To record companies, this is a problem.

At first, they tried to crush our resources. I have seen the demise of many peer-to-peer file-sharing applications by the hands of the record industry, and have seen just as many rise immediately after. As a teenager with moderate resources, it’s not hard to find the new place to download music for free.

Then, they tried to crush us. Headlines telling of poor little Suzy being sued for 150,000 dollars for downloading an N*Sync song forewarned “piraters” that their nasty habit had nasty repercussions. Privacy issues were raised, and many of the cases were dropped. Music downloading applications found new ways to keep users anonymous and downloading continued.

Now, they want to work with us. Online stores offering 99 cent song downloads allow both the consumers and the record companies to strike a compromise. The iTunes Store has proved widely successful in this model, selling over 3 billion songs to date. Though online stores such as the one Apple offers are very convenient, they still don’t offer that price point people like me look for in our music: free.

In an attempt to cater to those with a similar opinion, Indiana University has partnered with Ruckus to provide free and legal access to over 1.5 million licensed songs. Though IU’s attempt to bring an affordable music vendor onto campus to help deter illegal downloading is a good concept, choosing Ruckus as that vendor muddles the entire idea.

Ruckus boasts free, legal downloading of songs. What Ruckus fails to mention is the extreme limitations placed on these songs. First, all songs can only be played on the Ruckus Media Player, forcing users to replace iTunes or Windows Media Player with the advertisement-laden application provided by Ruckus. If you want to play a downloaded song on an mp3 player, you are forced to pay a monthly fee of $4.99. Even then, the songs won’t play on an iPod or Zune, the two most popular mp3 players on the market. If listening to CD’s is more your thing, you’re still out of luck. CD burning capabilities are reserved for the purchased songs only.

The limitations render these downloads almost useless to most music listeners. With the inability to listen to songs anywhere other than the computer, Ruckus has ignored the technology that spurred online downloading in the first place. Nobody downloads music to be heard exclusively heard on the computer; as Apple recently selling their 100,000,000th iPod indicates.

Giving away music for free can’t be the main focus of a successful anti-pirating campaign. This battle isn’t against the students who have grown up illegally obtaining music. It’s too late for them, their illicit ways too familiar. Paul Imbody, a sophomore, exemplifies the mindset of the veteran downloader: “I can’t pay for something I know I can get for free, it doesn’t make any sense.”

The focus must instead be placed on offering an affordable service to the students unversed in the world of torrents and newsgroups. The same students willing to try a legal service are usually the ones willing to pay. Michael Nahmius, a student that uses Ruckus says the real appeal is the service’s legitimacy, not its price point. “I’d definitely pay to download music that I could burn CD’s with if it was cheap. Right now it’s too expensive so I just use Ruckus,” says Michael.

Instead of working with the substandard features of Ruckus just because it’s free, IU has to look into some of the other subscription-based music downloading services available and work out a financial agreement. Online music store eMusic offers packages of $9.99 per month for 30 downloads or $14.99 for 50 downloads with no restrictions. Offering a service such as this at a reduced price (much like IU currently does with student software) would be more appealing to students than Ruckus, which offers free but essentially useless music.

Though I am part of the problem, I would like to see a solution. If IU takes the correct measures in offering a quality downloading service at an intelligent price, the benefits of being legal might finally outweigh the benefits of pirating. If not, at least the students willing to pay will feel less cheated on their decision.

(OpEd 1, J200)