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

No Pink Floyd

[nokilli]

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.
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Why didn't you know?

Re:No Pink Floyd

[melikamp]

I thought that parent is a troll, so I went and tossed a few querries. Couldn't get any results. So I browsed. It looks like they carry a few hundred of albums. Wow. I've seen personal collections bigger than that. They've got nothing on a university lan.

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.

Who?

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

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

Re:Top Tracks

[Brandybuck]

Now how is this going to reduce piracy?

I have no idea, since I haven't heard of anyone in either list.

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.