RealNetworks Offers College Music Discounts

RealNetworks Inc is offering some university students a discount on its digital music download service in an effort to curb illegal downloads and attract long-term customers.

From RealNetwork’s press release:

RealNetworks, Inc. today announced agreements with the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Minnesota to offer its award-winning Rhapsody Internet jukebox service to students starting this fall. The agreements, which will give more than 80,000 undergraduate and graduate students deeply discounted access to Rhapsody, are the first the company has signed within the higher education community. The service will be available this fall as part of first-year pilot programs at each university.

“We’re excited to be working together with these forward-thinking universities to give their students access to our Rhapsody service, and make the transition back to school a little more fun,” said Richard Wolpert, chief strategy officer, RealNetworks. “By offering students legal alternatives to music piracy, we’re investing in the future of the online music industry.”

Rhapsody offers unlimited access to a vast library of major and independent label music for less than $10 a month. Rhapsody’s library currently offers more than 725,000 songs for on-demand streaming, with more than 650,000 songs available for purchase at the industry-leading price of 79¢ per song. In addition to burning full albums or custom mix CDs, Rhapsody subscribers can build their own custom Internet radio stations, listen to professionally programmed stations, and browse extensive music information and editorial recommendations.

The University of California, Berkeley, which began offering Rhapsody to students this week, is offering the service to all undergraduate students for free through October 31st after which it will offer the service at a sharply reduced monthly price. The service is available to more than 30,000 students at the University of California, Berkeley.

The University of Minnesota will begin offering Rhapsody to more than 50,000 students at its four main campuses, including Twin Cities, Duluth, Morris, and Crookston, in early September. Students will have the option of subscribing to the service at a sharply reduced monthly basis or signing up for three or 12-month subscriptions at a further discounted rate.

“We’re excited to be offering our students an easy-to-use online music service where they can access their favorite tunes legally,” said Cliff Frost, director of communications and network services at UC Berkeley. “We see this as an excellent opportunity to help our students get in the habit of consuming music in a legal manner.”

“We’re in the 21st century. Listening to music using computers is a habit for today’s students,” said Shih-Pau Yen, deputy chief technology officer, University of Minnesota. “We wanted to help students gain access to a service where they can get their music for a very reasonable price. Our agreement with RealNetworks does that.”

In establishing these agreements, the schools have been working closely with the Campus Action Network (CAN), an initiative dedicated to facilitating the introduction of safe, legitimate digital music services to the campus environment. CAN, which is led by Sony BMG Music Entertainment and other record companies, works with a wide range of legitimate online music services, and helps institutions to create programs that uniquely fit their needs, as well as the needs of their student bodies.