University Sponsored Music Services?

Amy's Robot writes "The president of Penn State University is urging colleges to start their own digital music services. The schools would pay the licensing fees, and pass the charges on to their students. His logic is that paying for the school's service is an incentive not to use an "illegal" service. Supposedly, there will be some pilot programs this fall, but it seems like there are a lot of obstacles to overcome before then."

Comments

Business Model

[Davak]

This guy is thinking!

1. Let's cheaply (free!) allow everyone to get a product that they love.
2. Let's completely block access to all sources of this product.
3. Let's sell the product.
4. (Ah, shucks... you know what comes here.)

Davak

How about

[PD]

A university pot and bong shop to keep students from using the illegal suppliers? Same logic it seems to me. And I heartily approve!

Re:How about

[TopShelf]

I dunno... if it worked anything like campus bookstores, you'd end up paying $60 for a third-rate crackpipe!

Re:How about

[Davak]

Crap, the next time some college kid gets caught trading mp3s, he/she will claim that it's an addiction.

Did you actively trade mp3s?

Yes, but only because I was addicted.

Addicted?

Yes, your honor. it started innocently enough downloading a few phish episodes. Next, I was burning CDs to impress some girls in my class. Everything was fine until the school cut my access.

And then what happened?

I realized that I couldn't live without free music! I downloaded all the p2p clients... but eventually they were all blocked. I used bittorrent to download several albums at once... but slashdot kept running stories about it. Eventually I was reduced to sitting on IRC for hours and hours. Oh, it's horrible.

Couldn't you just buy the music?

Well, I like Michael Bolton.

Ohhhh... I wouldn't be seen buying that crap either. You need 6 weeks of inpatient rehab therapy.

So I'll have to admit this kid to the hospital for acute p2p withdrawl and treatment. I'll have to slowly wean him off, introduce him to MTV and radio again, etc. Yuck.

Davak

Who gives a crap?

[SuperBanana]

Anyone else sick of hearing about music this, music that?

Who honestly cares? I throw out the Entertainment section, and I switch channels when the dumb blond "entertainment" "reporter" comes on to tell us about who wined+dined her the best in the last few weeks(ie, which movies she feels like mentioning). I cringe when the regular reporters start talking about revenue figures of movies or albums, or announce it as mainstream news that some movie/album is due out soon...even worse, when they start promoting upcoming programming smack in the middle of their news program. "Thanks Judy. And in other news, join us Thursday night at 9pm for a special on actor's nosehairs!"

I frankly don't give a crap. Music and movie figures seem to always be clamoring for attention, desperate for it- further, they seem to be the only people really fascinated by their industry. I listen to music occasionally. I go to the movies or rent a movie even less- in both cases, because I have many other things to do and neither is producing material I'm even remotely interested in. Music seems, at least to me, to be a small part of most people's lives, its presence VASTLY overhyped by(surprise) the media.

Re:$26,000 USD?????

[st0rmcold]

Judging by the number of trolls on slashdot claiming to have graduated from american universities, it's not the education either.

Most likely the women!

If they do this, then...

[jez9999]

... maybe it's time they started charging students for clothing, and providing it for 'free'.