Ruckus Network
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Ruckus is a free ad-supported online music service available to students at all American colleges.[1]
Contents |
[edit] History
Ruckus Network, currently based in Herndon, Virginia, is backed by venture capitalists Battery Ventures[2] and Shelter Capital.[3] With its official launch in September of 2004 at Northern Illinois University, Ruckus became the first online music service focused exclusively on the college market.[citation needed]
In January of 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.[4] 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.[citation needed]
On 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.[5]
As of late January 2008, Ruckus has developed exclusive partnerships with 201 schools with users from over 1000 schools nationwide.[6] 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.[7] 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.[8]
Ruckus was co-founded in 2003 by then MBA students, David Galper and Vincent Han, while attending the MIT Sloan School of Management.
[edit] 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, and Windows Vista only.
- Downloading: Yes.
- Burning/Copying: No.
- Streaming: Streaming video content on Ruckus TV. No streaming music content.
- Format: Protected Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV) format.
- Digital restrictions: No burning to compact 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 the United States.
- Customer Support: Website only.[9]
[edit] Criticism
Ruckus has faced criticism[10] 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 some irivers. Ruckus works only with Microsoft PlaysForSure, a program with an uncertain long-term future following the release of Microsoft's new flagship Zune format, which is incompatible with PlaysForSure.[11]
- Only purchased music from Ruckus can be burned onto compact 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 or Linux operating systems.
- The Ruckus library of 3 million songs, while substantial, is smaller than the industry-leading iTunes 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 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.
[edit] "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 a threesome 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 7 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 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."[12]
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."[13]
[edit] References
- ^ Forbes page
- ^ Battery Ventures
- ^ Shelter Capital
- ^ ruckus-network-makes-noise-with-college-students
- ^ Ruckus
- ^ Affiliated Colleges and Universities
- ^ Invite Your Friends to Ruckus!
- ^ Save Your Music
- ^ Ruckus
- ^ Daily Orange
- ^ Smart Money.com
- ^ Appel, Justin (2006-10-27). Ruckus upsets college music scene. eSchool News. Retrieved on 2006-11-10.
- ^ Mike Bebel, Ruckus responds, Student Life, November 08, 2006
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official sites
- Articles
- Ruckus offers Students Free Music - Forbes. Retrieved on 2007-01-22
- Big Labels Offer Free Music to College Students - New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-01-22
- Penn State drops Napster for Ruckus - USA Today. Retrieved on 2007-05-07
