"The introduction of the free, ad-supported music downloading service, Ruckus, in December 2006 has not eliminated the problem of illegal downloading on campus. This academic year alone, at least four undergraduate students received pre-litigation letters from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as part of a batch of 417 letters sent to students at 16 colleges nationwide.
Why is it that students prefer to download music illegally when there are three million songs available legally and for free from Ruckus?
Music services differ in terms of song selection and compatibility with portable devices, and both of these concerns are influenced by the economics, technology and legal framework of the music industry.
When Ruckus was introduced, then USG president-elect Rob Biederman ’08 told The Daily Princetonian that he expected the deal to “completely alleviate” music piracy on campus because the service would provide a free and legal avenue for downloading music.
But this free and legal avenue still lags behind other fee-based models in the market.
Ruckus currently offers only half as many songs as the iTunes store, with only three million songs to the Apple platform’s six million. Ruckus does, however, offer more music from the four major record labels than other competing music-subscription companies like eMusic, which focuses mostly on independent labels.