Students now have free, legal access to more than 2.75 million songs

DETROIT — Wayne State University has begun offering free, downloadable music and video files to its students through a service provided by Ruckus Network Inc. and delivered through the university’s partnership with the MERIT Network. The MERIT Network provides high-speed Internet access to Michigan schools, libraries and higher education institutions.

WSU students can use their .edu e-mail address to register for an unlimited number of free, legal and safe music downloads from major and independent label artists, in addition to featured movies, music videos, and many current and classic television series. Students also can access Ruckus to create and share playlists, send personal media recommendations to friends and neighbors, build personal media libraries from a collection of more than 2.75 million high-fidelity, virus-free songs, browse classmates’ profiles and meet new friends. Faculty and staff may avail themselves of the Ruckus media service for a low monthly fee.

Ruckus notes that it is the first college-only service that blends social networking features with a massive and continuously expanding library of free, legal and safe music downloads. The service has proven successful at nearly 120 colleges and universities across the country, including Brown University, Duke University, Georgia Tech, Indiana University, North Carolina State, Princeton University, University of California-Berkley, the University of Denver, Penn State University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Mairin Bzrica, director of campus relations for Ruckus Network, points out that the company eliminates copyright infringement through licensing agreements with all of the major international record labels, as well as thousands of independent labels and artists.

“Wayne State University is very pleased to offer the Ruckus media service because of the many advantages it provides to our students,” says Patrick Gossman, interim chief information officer. “Now they can download music and videos legally, for free. The Ruckus service also includes social networking features found at popular sites, which promotes sharing and discovery among students. It’s something we think will be well received on our campus.”

Wayne State was selected to participate based on student demand for the Ruckus service, the university’s robust networking infrastructure, and a demonstrable commitment to supporting legal digital media services through on-campus marketing. WSU and Ruckus will collaborate to reduce campus network infrastructure costs and enhance the user experience by improving network performance and distributing additional video content on campus.

“We are very excited to make our media service available to students at Wayne State University to help them discover and share new music,” Bzrica says. “WSU students have been asking for Ruckus, and we are happy to now provide a full featured digital entertainment service – and a safe and legal alternative to file-sharing – at no cost to the students or the school.”

Students, faculty and staff at Wayne State can begin using the service immediately by visiting www.Ruckus.com, clicking on “Join Ruckus” and entering an .edu e-mail address. 


About Wayne State University
Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 11 schools and colleges to 33,000 students.

About Merit Network
Merit Network, Inc. is a nonprofit, member-owned organization formed in 1966 to design and implement a computer network between public universities in Michigan. After 40 years of innovation, Merit continues to provide high-performance networking and services to the research and education communities in Michigan and beyond.

Merit continues to leverage its experience managing NSFNet, the precursor to the modern Internet, to catapult Michigan into the forefront of networking technologies. Merit is in the process of implementing a 10 Gbps backbone across Michigan to continue to provide a flexible, robust architecture to support the research and education needs within the region. This build-out is completely self-funded. Merit received no legislative dollars to support the effort.

Merit believes in the strength of a robust educational community. By connecting organizations, building relationships and sharing services, educational institutions can achieve far more together than they can alone.

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 our corporate site at www.RuckusNetwork.com or our service at www.Ruckus.com.  



Contact: Tim Hurley or Andrew Soucy, BluePoint Venture Marketing for Ruckus Network
Voice: 781-861-7800
Email: tim@bluepointmktg.com or andrew@bluepointmktg.com  

Contact: Chris Lawson, Ruckus Network
Voice: 703-464-6551
Email: clawson@ruckus.com