Sunday, February 11, 2007

Free Music For All (at least those with a .edu email)

Sure iTunes is great, but why not get music for free legally? I have found the digital music jackpot in a site called Ruckus. All of you reading this should be eligible to start downloading now because you meet the single requirement, having a valid .edu email address.

With access to over 2.1 million songs (and we are talking from the newest to rare, rare finds) and blazing download speeds, Ruckus is a gem. Of course, there are a couple caveats. One is that you have to download the Ruckus player to your computer. There are some banner ads on the bottom, but nothing too intrusive. Mac compatibility is an issue as well, you would need to be able to run Windows Boot Camp on your Mac to get around this. And the last disclaimer, all of the songs are under DRM (digital rights management). This means that you can't do much with the songs except listen to them on your computer via the Ruckus player or Windows Media Player.

Despite these hangups, this service is excellent, speedy and reliable. I have found some songs I've been looking for forever, so I thought some of you might like to give it a try.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whoa. No catch to this. Remind me at the beginning of class on Tuesday and I'll have you tell everyone about this. Guess I'll have to sign up for yet another thing to try out!

SONIA said...

I just posted a blog on the very subject of digital music. This is a goldmine! Free music is so hard to find these days. I can't wait to be totally obsessed with this :)

Tim Hurley said...

Kristen, nice posting on Ruckus. Thanks for spreading the good word! One correction - the Ruckus library now numbers more than 2.5 million songs, up from 2.1 million last month.

Cheers!

Brooke Seidman said...

I have so many friends who use ruckus, but I never knew much about it. Wow! Thanks for the info!
-Brooke :)

misplacedtexan said...

Thanks for the information. Has anyone checked out spyware that might accompany the download? That used to be a major problem with a lot of the free sites but its been ages since I've been up to date on that. :)

Madison Adams said...

This looks great. I went to site to check out the user agreement and get more information on the arrangement between Ruckus and the record companies. I'm glad that the industry is finally beginning to accept the Internet as a valid method of distribution, especially since it is also opening up to less traditional methods of payment. Maybe in the future Ruckus can offer an additional service for a fee - like with the videos and movies - that would allow users to play the music on an mp3 player as well.

Glenn Richards said...

Awesome! I'm going to sign up and then get the new Beck album!

Thanks!