Napster Loses Penn State to Ruckus

Penn State will end its partnership with the Napster music service on May 31 in favor of Ruckus, the university said on Wednesday.

The announcement ends a nearly four-year deal between the institution and music service, and sends mixed signals on the future of the offering itself. Penn State was one of Napster's largest educational customers.

Starting in the fall, all students at the university's 24 campuses across the state of Pennsylvania will be eligible to sign up for an account with Ruckus. The service offers about 3 million tracks.

In somewhat of an ironic twist, Ruckus is headed by Mike Bebel, who was president of Napster when the original deal was signed with Penn State in November 2003. Napster was staying silent on what the announcement meant for the future of the service.

"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," university president Graham Spanier said.

Penn State stands to save a lot of money by switching to Ruckus. The music service does not require any payment for offering Ruckus to students, whereas Napster charged the university for the base service. Only downloaded tracks require students to pay a 99-cent fee.

It is unknown how much Penn State paid for Napster, because the company required that information to be kept secret as part of its agreement.

Additionally, students complained that the Napster service did not offer enough in the way of video and movie downloads, and that played a large part in the school's decision to switch.