University Park, Pa. -- Penn State will begin supporting this fall a new digital entertainment service, Ruckus from Ruckus Network Inc., throughout the University's 24 campuses.
The newly signed contract is designed to provide all Penn State students with free access to the premium Ruckus service, while allowing the University to provide its students with a fully-featured and expanding digital entertainment service. Ruckus members have downloadable access to more than 2.75 million songs, the ability to connect through social networks and the option to download full-length feature films, as well as short-form video, including action sports clips and music videos.
With the change to Ruckus, Penn State's agreement providing students with free access to the Napster music service ended May 31, 2007.
"After carefully researching the offerings in the current digital music market, Penn State is pleased to announce that we have signed a contract with Ruckus Network Inc.," said Penn State President Graham B. Spanier. "Napster helped Penn State greatly in taking a bold and ultimately successful step, but we believe the new Ruckus service will provide greater flexibility for the university marketplace going forward."
All enrolled students will be able to use Ruckus to legally download and share music, create playlists, send personal media recommendations to friends and neighbors, browse classmates' profiles and media libraries and meet new friends. Students also can build their personal music libraries from Ruckus' collection of nearly 3 million high fidelity, virus-free songs.
"This state-of-the art network offers our students the features and content they expect from a music service, in addition to numerous additional social networking, browsing, and repository capabilities," Spanier said. "The Ruckus music network is the most appropriately suited service for the collegiate demographic."
Kevin Morooney, vice provost for information technology, added that Ruckus is offering more features that college students are looking for.
"Penn State students have been telling us they want more movie and video content and in part that is one of the considerations we looked at in making this decision," Morooney said.
Penn State will acquire considerable savings in the switch to Ruckus. Since the annual cost of offering a legal music service was previously covered by a portion of students' information technology fee, the change to Ruckus allows the University to apply IT fees previously spent on music services to student multi-media services, and emergency reporting services.
Penn State's legal music service was first introduced in 2004, making Penn State the first institution of higher education in the nation to offer a legal digital music service to its student community. Penn State students on average collectively access 2 million songs a week.
"We are thrilled to partner with Penn State University, one of the most prestigious schools in the country and among the earliest adopters of online music services for their students," said Mike Bebel, chief executive officer of Ruckus Network Inc. "We look forward to enhancing the Penn State digital entertainment offering and creating a more rewarding user experience by providing access to the Ruckus library of 2.75 million songs, as well as the ability to download and enjoy full-length feature films and connect with friends through our rich social networking tools."
More details on Ruckus registration and further information on the service are expected to be reported by the end of the semester.
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 the corporate site at http://www.RuckusNetwork.com or the service at http://www.Ruckus.com online.