- Ruckus Network
Ruckus is a free ad-supported online music service available to students at all American
college s. [ [http://www.forbes.com/digitalentertainment/2007/01/21/free-music-downloads-tech-media-cx_lh_0121ruckus.html Forbes page] ]History
Ruckus Network, currently based in
Herndon, Virginia , is backed by venture capitalists Battery Ventures [ [http://www.battery.com/default.asp?section=portfolio&file=complete Battery Ventures] ] and Shelter Capital. [ [http://www.sheltercap.com/f-portfolio.html Shelter Capital] ] With its official launch in September 2004 atNorthern Illinois University , Ruckus became the first online music service focused exclusively on thecollege market.Fact|date=February 2007In January 2006, Ruckus moved away from its
subscription business model in favor of one that was ad-subsidized. This change eliminated the previous monthly fee required for site access and granted users cost-free entry to use the service. [ [http://www.adotas.com/2006/03/ ruckus-network-makes-noise-with-college-students] ] By November 2006, Ruckus had officially partnered with 80 colleges and universities and five state-wide network systems, which support over 200 higher education institutions.Fact|date=February 2007On
January 22 ,2007 , Ruckus announced that access to their music library, which was previously available only at schools with contractual agreements, can be accessed by any college student with a valid college (.edu ) email account. [ [http://www.ruckusnetwork.com/pressrelease.php?id=62 Ruckus] ]As of late January 2008, Ruckus has developed exclusive partnerships with 201 schools with users from over 1000 schools nationwide. [ [http://www.ruckusnetwork.com/affiliated.php Affiliated Colleges and Universities] ] Also at this time, the website stated that 1 million additional members will be required to keep the site open and then spread this message through various online communication portals. [ [http://www.ruckusnetwork.com/invite/quickinvite.html Invite Your Friends to Ruckus!] ] This development was apparently an effort by Ruckus to gain the help of members before more serious efforts would need to be set in place. [ [http://www.ruckusnetwork.com/invite/facebook.html Save Your Music] ]
Ruckus was co-founded in 2003 by then
MBA students, David Galper and Vincent Han, while attending theMIT Sloan School of Management .Features and restrictions
*Pricing: Free to all students with a valid .edu email address. $8.99/month for
alumni and college faculty.
*Platform(s):Windows 2000 ,Windows XP , andWindows Vista only.
*Downloading: Yes.
*Burning/Copying: No.
*Streaming: Streaming video content on Ruckus TV. No streaming music content.
*Format: ProtectedWindows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV ) format.
*Digital restrictions: No burning tocompact discs . Limited player support. Files contain embedded licenses that must be renewed periodically.
*Preview: None.
*Trial: None.
*Catalog: Over 3 million files.
*Features: Adding "friends", friend-to-friend music recommendations, user messaging, music search function, streaming video content from Ruckus TV and a television/film library.
*Global availability: Ruckus is only available to college undergraduates, alumni and faculty located in theUnited States .
*Customer Support: Website only. [ [http://ruckus.custhelp.com Ruckus] ]Criticism
Ruckus has faced criticism [ [http://www.dailyorange.com/media/storage/paper522/news/2005/10/26/News/Cms-Assess.Student.Subscriptions.To.Ruckus.2.Months.After.Initial.Su.Launch-1033792.shtml?norewrite200604081809 Daily Orange] ] on several points:
# The Ruckus music files are copy protected, which prevents them from being used with some of the most popular portable music devices such as the
iPod and someiriver s. Ruckus works only withMicrosoft PlaysForSure , a program with an uncertain long-term future following the release of Microsoft's new flagshipZune format, which is incompatible with PlaysForSure. [ [http://www.smartmoney.com/Techsmart/index.cfm?story=20061110 Smart Money.com] ] However, the copy protection can be easily bypassed by programs such as Tunebite, which re-record the files sans copyright protection.
# Only purchased music from Ruckus can be burned ontocompact discs .
# Ruckus music files carry individual licenses that must be renewed monthly by signing into service or playing media.
# The service is not compatible with Apple Macintosh orLinux operating systems.
# The Ruckus library of 3 million songs, while substantial, is smaller than the industry-leadingiTunes Store (with more than 6 million songs).
# Inconsistent naming convention for files (some file names are entirely capitalized, others include underscores rather than spaces).
# Inconsistent storage of track number (some files lack a track number property in the wma info tab)
# Inconsistent labeling of explicit and clean albums: Some explicit albums have the parental advisory icon next to their listing, while others only have the icon in the lower right corner of the album cover art. Additionally, some clean tracks (and even tracks without lyrics) are incorrectly marked as "explicit".
# Some albums may be incomplete - certain album tracks may be unavailable due to cross-listings on the service.
# Inconsistent availability of explicit and clean albums; some albums have both types available, others only have one type available.
# Questionable marketing practices (see section on "Brody Ruckus").
# No service for students of international universities."Brody Ruckus" incident
In September 2006, Ruckus attempted to create the single largest group on
Facebook as a promotional tool. An employee started a fictional student account under the name "Brody Ruckus." The group created under the name "If this group reaches 100,000 my girlfriend will have a threesome" drew membership on the claim that if 100,000 people joined, the fictional character's girlfriend "Holly" would have athreesome with "Ruckus" and another woman. Within a week, the group had reached 100,000 members. "Brody Ruckus" then promised to post pictures of his sexual encounter online if 300,000 people joined. Within seven days, the group membership had exceeded 400,000 and "Ruckus" wrote that if the group became the largest on Facebook, he would post a video of his threesome. Facebook administrators deleted the "Brody Ruckus" profile and his group, since it represented a breach in the site's [http://www.facebook.com/terms.php Terms of Service] agreement, specifically with reference to: "impersonating any person or entity, or falsely stating or otherwise misrepresenting yourself, your age or your affiliation with any person or entity."In an interview with the online newspaper eSchool News, Ruckus President Mike Bebel said that the Brody Ruckus affair "was an exercise conducted by one of our marketing teams. It wasn't something we had any real designs around. It took on a life of its own. It was a good learning exercise for us, but not something that we would repeat." [cite web|last=Appel|first=Justin|title=Ruckus upsets college music scene|publisher=eSchool News|date=2006-10-27|url=http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=6662&page=1|accessdate=2006-11-10]
In a letter to the editor of "Student Life" the student newspaper of
Washington University in St. Louis , Bebel stated that "contrary to what has been reported in other media outlets ... Ruckus did not use this [Brody Ruckus] profile to market the Ruckus service." He also acknowledged that "the creation of the Brody Ruckus profile was ill-advised and I can promise that this tactic will not be repeated." [ [http://media.www.studlife.com/media/storage/paper337/news/2006/11/08/Forum/Ruckus.Responds-2445838.shtml?sourcedomain=www.studlife.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com Mike Bebel, "Ruckus responds", Student Life,November 08 ,2006 ] ]References
ee also
*
Online music store
*Comparison of online music stores External links
; Official sites
* [http://www.ruckus.com/ Ruckus]
* [http://www.ruckusnetwork.com Ruckus Corporate]
* [http://blog.ruckus.com/ Ruckus Blog]; Articles
* [http://www.forbes.com/digitalentertainment/2007/01/21/free-music-downloads-tech-media-cx_lh_0121ruckus.html Ruckus offers Students Free Music] - Forbes. Retrieved on 2007-01-22
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/technology/22ruckus.html Big Labels Offer Free Music to College Students] - New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-01-22
* [http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-05-02-penn-napster_N.htm?csp=34 Penn State drops Napster for Ruckus] - USA Today. Retrieved on 2007-05-07
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