Slashdot Mirror
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.)
No Alanis Morissette. No Marilyn Manson. No Billie Holiday.
Damn man, if it's OK to not have any music, I can support Mac OS X and Linux too! Come on over to nokilli's download service, where you can listen to silence in your choice of MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA or the very popular, highly compressed, zero-byte file format.
--
Why didn't you know?
I think I speak for everyone when I say: What is a mindawn, and what part of left field did that decision come out of?
Unfortunately for the UC systems, Mindawn doesn't seem to offer any popular music (songs produced by the RIAA) so I'm not sure that's going to help stem the tide of file sharing.
Not that there's anything wrong with not providing that RIAA stuff...
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
My MythTV HowTo
"....supports Windows, Mac OS, and Linux
works with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux."
ummmm, so does it run in Linux?
Seriously though, there is no such thing as a free lunch and all that so I have to wonder what better uses (computer labs, research facilities, etc) are getting short changed to pay for this. I buy my songs legally so I don't like that my tuition and/or school budget getting used to this to prevent us "pirates".
Is this "article" a paid advertisement?
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.
The university I attend started Cdigix service last year. I was going to give it a free try, but it only works in Windows, so I never even touched it. Had it worked in Linux, I would have probably given it a try (If they had my type of music), and maybe continued using it.
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
- All The Water of This World - Aaron English
- The Sense -
John Luttrell
-
Waterfall Carnival -
Frogg Cafe
-
Journey to Farpoint -
John Luttrell
-
Consider the Lilies -
JoAnn Gordon
-
Quest for the Heartland -
Ricocher
-
All This Time -
Frogg Cafe
-
You're Not Alone -
JoAnn Gordon
-
Windy Day -
John Luttrell
-
Full Moon -
Chrome Shift
Compare this to ITunes:- Pon de Replay (Radio Edit) -
Rihanna
- Feel Good Inc. (Album Crossfade) -
Gorillaz
- These Boots Are Made for Walkin'... -
Jessica Simpson
- Don't Cha (featuring Busta Rhymes)... -
The Pussycat Dolls & Busta Rhymes
- Best of You -
Foo Fighters
- Don't Phunk With My Heart -
Black Eyed Peas
- Sugar, We're Goin Down -
Fall Out Boy
- Behind These Hazel Eyes -
Kelly Clarkson
- Beverly Hills -
Weezer
- Lose Control (Featuring Ciara & Fa... -
Missy Elliott
Now how is this going to reduce piracy?It just sounds like they are throwing a bone to the RIAA in that they are AT LEAST making an attempt at offering an alternative to P2P perhaps trying to shield themselves from direct litigation on the REALLY, REALLY cheap.
'He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher... or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.' - Douglas Adams
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.
Blessed are the 1337, for they shall pwn the earth.
...clearly they asked the folks at the student radio stations what the kids listen to these days. /worked in college radio //has NEVER met a student radio DJ who wasn't a HUGE music snob
http://www.cdigix.com/website/press/press071805. asp
It offers popular music as well as movies and TV. Mindawn I'm still kind of confused on.
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.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
"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.
Moderation Totals: Flamebait=2, Troll=1, Redundant=1, Insightful=6, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=12. (not mine)
Albums in category Reggae
No albums were found in this category
Tracks in category Reggae
No tracks were found in this category
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
But seriously, what is the point of an official music source. Did they ever have an official radio station? Or an official music store? Or an official candy bar?
Kids are going to listen to podcasts, and want the song. If they have a dollar, they might buy it off iTunes. Otherwise they will do what has always been done, which is record it off the radio or get a copy from someone else. Nobody has money, and this stuff is expensive.
And the music industry should play a soft touch with the kids. As far back as the 70's and 80's, I can assure you that Deborah Harry and madonna would not the rich chicks they are now if stupid middle school kids were yelled at for copying music. And do you think that the silly college kids bought anything from REM? Not often.
I don't know what the solution is. Everyone deserves to rich and unhappy. Everyone deserves thier cut. But a school contracting with a single service does not seem to lead to everyone getting thier cut. The selected songs will be counted, but everything else will be missed. I only use iTunes, and I only get a 25% hit rate. If the hit rate for a kid is 25% i am sure they will never check the site again. The register claims that zero songs have been bought through the napster deals.
In any case, I am glad the U went with an indie source. It will be good for the kids. I hope that they still have access to iTunes if everyone has an iPod. Although I bet that Apple would have cut a really good deal for each student to have $50 gift card.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
I just don't get this constant infantilisation of students in American colleges. Their students are adults, why should they be provided with music and video to stop them from stealing it (read: violate copyright etc etc, lets not start with that old chestnut)? Competent adults should surely be responsible for their own actions. How on earth has this landed on the plate of the institution anyway? If its a question of bandwidth usage that can be easily and almost immediately curbed without apology.
In my view institutions of higher education are just that, not glorified baby sitting services for adolescents. Things like introducing this service are a complete waste of the time of university employees and don't exactly help these kids grow up and take to the responsibility of being the adults they are.
Plays violent online games as: Nerfherder76
AllOfMP3 with many [MP3 (LAME/Blade), WMA (7/8/9), OGG (CBR/VBR), AAC (vbr/cbr), MPC, Lossless (Monkey's, OptimFROG, FLAC, PCM, WMA 9 Lossless)] encoding options
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Why doesn't the RIAA try the M$ strategy of "catching 'em young?" College kids can't afford the money for buying the overprices CDs. But college is *the time* when you develop a taste for music.
Why doesn't the RIAA give CDs, etc. at a lower price/free to college students and universities and charge the salaried class which can afford them?
Nandz.
though it's a bit optimistic, i hope the students really take the their selection. i like the grass-rootsy feel of supporting open-source drm-free codecs and non-RIAA content. it's like organic music. perhaps this will open the door for a larger audience to ween themselves off of the riaa koolaid. most of you are complaining it doesn't have enough "popular" music. maybe this can change what is "popular". longshot, but post like "it's not itunes, it sucks" and "it doesn't have britney spears, it sucks" is not going to help us break riaa monopoly. for all the M$ bashing that goes on here, it's amazing to read "everyone uses ipod/itunes, just use that". i would have expected more support for ogg and flac than for itunes on an open source friendly site.
The university simply does not have the power to select and decide what music the students should be listening to and it should only be concerned with providing a service that will be used by the most students and that will effectively reduce piracy.
First off, "a service that will be used by the most students" !necessarily= "a service that provides all RIAA music". Students care about DRM too.
Second, that's not their only concern anyway. Another is cost - they could just buy every student whatever CDs and iTMS tracks they wanted, thus satisfying all student demand for music and eliminating illegal downloads, but it would be prohibitively expensive. This solution is presumably a lot cheaper, and will still get some use.
Students aren't going to adapt to the music that is on the download service they're either going to get what they want or disregard it.
All I can say to this is I think time will prove you wrong. It won't replace P2P downloads entirely, but students will find music they like on this service, especially once UC radio stations start playing music from there. If any group is open to new music, it's college students.
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
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.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
In the artist FAQ it actually says the artists have to pay $50 to get on their site... that's probably the reason no decent artists are on their.
Just to make sure not even the most common popular artists are on there: No "spears", no "jackson", no "madonna, no "metallica", not even any "beatles".
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Yeah, I'm sure that 9 out of 10 /.ers could put up an equivalent download service in ten minutes.
This is called a creative solution. While RIAA is telling everyone to look at the waving hand, UC is saying, hey, let's be the hand with the rabbit.
$20 off of a $200 iPod mini, $30 off of a $300 regular iPod, that's a 10% discount. How does 10% qualify as "extensive"? I'm happy to take the 10% but it only a fair discount, "fair" as in a little better than mediocre not as in reasonable. Or maybe a token discount would be a better label. iPod is just too hot for anything more.
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.
My <1000 UID is with a hot chick
Mindawn seems to be more like a community site / online record company, rather than a music store in it's own right. *ANY* artists can sign up for $50 a year (or the current special deal of $50 for lifetime) and upload as many albums as they want, with 75% of the sale coming back to them if it's exclusive to Mindawn, and 55% if it isn't.
From the Artists FAQ:
So while they do work with record companies, a lot (most?) of their music will inevitably be from independant artists, and anyone who wants to share their work. From the Customer FAQ:
Not a system for everyone, since many students will be more interested in the big names which tend to get pirated in the first place, but a nice enough system, and the artists certainly aren't hard done by. They even provide software, MARS (Mindawn Audio Ripping Software), for ripping CD, WAV or AIFF to OGG or FLAC format for using with their system. That's not to say that you couldn't use flac/oggenc, especially since it isn't F/OSS, but it's nice that they've provided their own multi-platform utility with a GUI to help out in that regard... not to mention the fact that the MARS documentation says that you need oggenc/flac/cdparanoia installed on Linux in any case.
I think this is a very good move by UC.
The university probably have an obligation to ensure all members of the university can use the services they buy in to and probably also have an obligation to ensure that the deal is fair for the students. As a result they were required to go for a provider which catered for windows, Mac and Linux. The popular providers don't do this and worse they wrap all there files in DRM. DRMed music files would no doubt increase support calls from not technical students to the universities help desk, all those students whose old computers have died and who have managed to copy there music across, only to find that it won't play...(or similar - I guess this is the case, I don't have any DRMed music.)
Mindawn don't carry popular music, but this is probably more because the record labels are unwilling to provide mindawn with them in a suitable form for them to sell (ie. allow them to sell them as unDRMed ogg vorbis files at $0.99).
I think that by choosing Mindawn UC is covering there back, whilst at the same time sending a message to the record labels that they want them to provide music at reasonable price, in an OS agnostic manner, without DRM.
I'm sure this deal won't stop the UC pupils from getting itunes accounts and grabbing all the utter shite pop they want, but at least the university aren't bank-rolling this.
In terms of platform support, cdigix' Ctrax music offering does not seem to be too open-minded:
:-(
"(SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS)
Minimum Requirements
Use a PC that has a minimum of 128 megs of RAM and a Pentium III 650 MHz or Celeron 700 MHz processor
- Windows XP is required for Ctrax
Internet Explorer version 6. This may be downloaded from: Microsoft Internet Explorer Download
Windows Media Player Version 9. This may be downloaded from: Windows Media Player Download
Macromedia Flash Plug-in version 7.
http://www.cdigix.com/website/cdigix/faqs.asp
Kind of a closed shop...
Walter.