Entertainment
Free, Legal Music Downloading Service Ruckus(R) is Now Available to All College Students from Ruckus Network
Source: Ruckus Network, Inc.
Jan 22, 2007, 08:10

Any Student with Valid .edu Email Address Can Now Access 2.1 Million Tracks from Leading Legal Music Service

HERNDON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE via COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--Jan. 22, 2007--Ruckus(R), the legal music downloading service, is now free for all college students nationwide. Every student on America's college and university campuses
now has free and legal access to the world's first, advertising supported college-only, music download service, Ruckus, from Ruckus Network, Inc. The Ruckus service, previously available only at schools with contractual agreements with Ruckus, can now be accessed by any student with a valid .edu email account.

With today's announcement, Ruckus users everywhere now have easy and immediate access to the recently expanded library of more than 2.1 million high fidelity, virus-free music tracks from every major label, as well as an impressive and expansive list of independent labels. Ruckus eliminates copyright infringement through its licensing agreements with all of the major international record labels, as well as thousands of independent labels and artists.

Additionally, Ruckus users can use the service's social networking features such as user profiles, comment boards and shared play lists. Ruckus users can send personal media recommendations to friends and neighbors, browse classmates' profiles and media libraries, meet new friends and use the "Invite A Friend" feature to share the Ruckus experience with all their friends at any college or university through popular email, search and contact management systems including AOL, MSN Hotmail, Microsoft Outlook, GMail, and Yahoo!

"Free and legal digital music has just become broadly available to the most active and engaged music consumer group on the planet," said Michael Bebel, President and CEO of Ruckus. "This is a major milestone for Ruckus, but much more importantly, for the growing community of college and university students and faculty we have been interacting with for the past three years. We look forward to providing the same great user experience with an incredible library of content, to an even greater number of users nationwide."

Several hundred thousand college students have already joined the Ruckus community, however with the service now open to all students with a valid .edu email account, the user base is expected to grow significantly. "You can't beat free when it comes to downloading music," says Matt Hitch, Northeastern University. "Lots of my friends at other schools always talk about how great the Ruckus service is, and I'm really happy I can use it now too. The Ruckus service has a great music library, it is easy to use and it's going to get a lot more popular now that it is more widely available."

Ruckus Raised Across U.S. Campuses

Ruckus has become the free and legal multimedia delivery service of choice at America's colleges and universities. The service has been adopted through contractual agreements with more than 100 schools including Arizona State University, Georgia Tech, Indiana University, the University of Southern California, the University of Denver, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University. Students at these and other schools who have signed agreements with Ruckus enjoy an enhanced user experience, including faster downloads, improved network bandwidth, lower campus network infrastructure costs and access to additional video content. As a result, the Ruckus subscriber base has grown fourteen-fold during the past 12 months.

How To Sign Up

Ruckus is now available to any student with a valid .edu email account. Just go to Ruckus.com, click on "Join Ruckus", enter your school email address and get started. The registration process only takes a few minutes.

About Ruckus Network, Inc.

Ruckus Network, Inc. provides the premier digital entertainment network designed specifically for college students. The Ruckus experience blends college students' top interests - friends and entertainment - to create a strong sense of community at universities across the country. Whether looking for a roommate with similar interests or someone who enjoys hip hop music as much as they do, Ruckus members are able to find friends through media and media through friends. Today, the Ruckus service is available to hundreds of thousands of U.S. college students and is quickly becoming the brand of choice for higher education institutions nationwide. For more information, please visit our corporate site at www.RuckusNetwork.com or our service at www.Ruckus.com.