| Ruckus Network, which distributes movies and music online to colleges nationwide, is expanding access to its ad-supported music download service to any U.S. college student. Beginning this week, all students with valid university e-mail accounts will be able to use the service to download music to their computers. The Herndon, Va.-based company aims to boost the number of college students who use its service to woo more age-appropriate advertisers. The company adopted the ad-supported business model about a year ago. "Free and legal digital music has just become broadly available to the most active and engaged music consumer group on the planet," said Michael Bebel, Ruckus' president and chief executive. Previously, the service was available only to students at universities that had entered into agreements with Ruckus. The company estimates several hundred thousand students at more than 100 universities already use its service. Students outside Ruckus' network of affiliated universities will not be able to download movies, but will have access to Ruckus' more than 2.1 million tracks, which they can download to their computers for free. To transfer audio files to a portable music player, however, users must pay either $5 a month or $19.99 per semester. |
