The free music server promised to Ball State University students a year and a half ago by Student Government Association is less than a week from release.Students will be able to access 1.6 million plus songs for free off of the Ruckus server starting Wednesday, with the correct media player.According to a two-year contract Ball State signed with Ruckus, students can listen to all music in the Ruckus library and songs shared on the Ball State network.However, iTunes is not compatible with the server. Ed Cheely, director of campus sales for Ruckus, recommended students use a program such as the Ruckus Media player available on the company Web site, ruckus.com"This is to the benefit of the university because when students want to download music we want to give them a legal alternative to do that," Leisa Julian, director of the Finance Office, said.The service is provided free to all students, and to faculty for educational uses. Subscriptions are available for alumni, faculty and staff at $8.99 a month.Ruckus has been in talks with SGA since last year, but a contract was not signed until summer, Asher Lisec, SGA president said. As part of the agreement, SGA will advertise the service for free. Advertising will include sending out an e-mail to the student body, handing out flyers and adding the Ruckus logo to the SGA Web site, she said."I think since they are providing the service for us they should get some advertising," Lisec said. "I think students will be more comfortable seeing the Ball State logo on this instead of just an outside company saying this is free."Most of the companies revenue comes from advertising on the server, Cheely said, allowing Ruckus to provide the music for free.Additional revenue comes from premium services, such as transferring music to a mp3 player, Cheely said. It costs $4 a month, or $20 a semester, for that service, and must be renewed every 30 days.iPod users will not be able to access the free music, however, because iTunes does not work with Ruckus. A list of approved mp3 players is available at playforsure.com.University Computing Services is working with Ruckus to establish the server on the university Web site. The way the music server is set up, only Ball State e-mail addresses, not passwords, will ever go to Ruckus, Loren Malm, UCS assistant director of security, policy, systems and assessment, said.To sign up for Ruckus, students will be able to access the server through the university Web site. They will send Ruckus their Ball State e-mail address, and then create a password for the server."The advantage of having the server here is there will be a cache of music stored here at Ball State," Malm said. "It won't have to go over the internet."
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