UC System Chooses Mindawn Download Service

An anonymous reader writes "In hopes of stemming the tide of students freely sharing copyrighted multimedia files over their campus networks, the University of California (UC) system has selected an online music and video service that supports Windows, Mac OS, and Linux to provide downloadable music and video for its approximately 200,000 student population. Unlike iTunes (which only supports Mac OS X and Windows) and Napster (which is Windows-only), Mindawn works with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. In addition, instead of providing downloads that are degraded by what is known as "lossy compression," downloads from Mindawn are offered in both Ogg Vorbis and FLAC formats." (Vorbis files are lossy too, though my tin ears can't always tell.)

Comments

How much money did they plunk on this?

[thewldisntenuff]

I ask this question because I have browsed through the Mindawn service. This might be a loss for the university. Before we get into this debate about what music is good/bad, or the usual "Indie Music is the only real music" posts, let's say something about Joe College Student. Your average college student isn't like us. The average college student listens to RIAA artists like Metallica, Britney Spears, etc. None of those artists (nor any newer music) is available on this catalog. Word will get around campus, and as a result, I have a feeling the service will not be used by the masses.

-thewldisntenuff

Heh... hilarious

[tabacco]

So even though the vast majority of students on UC campuses carry iPods (thanks to Apple's extensive student discounts on them, including giving them away free with purchase of a powerbook), the UC system has selected a download system incompatible with iPod.

Figures.

good luck...

[Sathias]

Riiiight... they are going to stop piracy by providing a paid streaming audio and video service with crap content to a group of people that typically have little money.

I'm Confused

[bill_mcgonigle]

What does this have to do with higher education again?

Is the Citizenry of California really paying for college kids to download music?

Why not deliver pints of Ben & Jerry's to the dorm rooms too? I mean, it's hot in California - think of the children, won't you?

If they're having problems with bandwidth, give them an allotment per MAC address or other authorization token and charge them for overages. Next.

One Reason

[emkman]

"Mindawn will be a valuable partner for campuses instituting online entertainment programs because of its wide range of content by independent artists and its offer to allow UC students to market their own music. This is an important endeavor that we are embarking on, and we are pleased to be working with an established leader on the project."

The ability for students to market their music online easily is something other music services don't offer. This was possibly a significant factor in choosing this company. Its a very University of California type thing to do, and I as a UC student can't say I'm upset about this.

Why exactly is this bad?

[mincognito]

I bet UC is paying next to nothing for this with minidawn hoping to profit on more musicians signing up to distribute music through their service (for $50). If i were a struggling band, I'd considering paying $50 to have my music distributed to 200,000 college students. And i'm sure those of you saying how crap the minidawn music selection is are the same ones calling for RIAA boycots in other post. I, for one, think it's great that a university is choosing to promote non-RIAA music to students.

Re:No Pink Floyd

[trisweb]

I'm a UC Berkeley student, and I'll say now that I'm not interested for exactly this reason. Sorry, but I'll stick with CDs if I'm going to buy music.

Berkeley has some of the greatest music stores in the nation. They offer an amazing variety of music (including Pink Floyd) in full lossless audio and no DRM. Until the same is true for an online store, there really is no substitute. I'll take Ameoba over iTunes any day.

You got to start somewhere - This is good news.

[TheViciousOverWind]

Geez, when iTunes, WMA or DRM in general comes up, everyone screams for support of Linux and non-DRM - When someone actually chooses a vendor that works on Linux and doesn't have DRM, it's suddenly not good enough.

Well, tough luck - a company has got to start from somewhere, and with a business-deal like this backing them, it's very likely that they're going to grow at a fast rate and add a lot more music to their portfolio.

This is good news for everyone not interested in the chain and ball that is DRM.