MegaSite Mania

With Napster’s recent announcement that it will be expanding beyond its English-speaking service territories (the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia) to Japan and Germany, many analysts were left wondering, what’s left? Where else can Napster go to that it hasn’t already been? The answer: some of the nation’s most well regarded institutions of higher learning. To be fair, Napster already has a long history of infiltrating our institutions of higher learning. Back in the days when Napster was a humble start-up with a not-so-humble number of visitors, the site practically lived in the dorm rooms of America.

College students are what made the original Napster the tremendous success it was. That is, until several high profile music artists and the Recording Institute Association of America began to crack down on Napster. Eventually, the original Napster peer-to-peer file-sharing network was shut down. Colleges and universities across the country outlawed the use of Napster. College students could no longer use their dorm’s high-speed Internet connections to connect to Napster and upload and download digital music files to their heart’s content. But now, Napster is back in universities. Only this time Napster is clean, legitimate, and 100 percent legal.

Napster announced in July of 2004 that it had formed progressive agreements with several of the nation’s leading colleges and universities to provide their students with unlimited access to the self-proclaimed leader in the digital music revolution. The colleges and universities that agreed to form a partnership with Napster included Penn State University, the University of Rochester, Cornell University, The George Washington University, Middlebury College in Vermont, The University of Southern California, the University of Miami, and the Wright State University in Ohio. All these universities and colleges signed up with Napster to create campus-specific program that would allow student to access Napster’s impressive digital music catalog.

Why did Napster approach the universities and colleges with this proposed program? Part of the reason these partnerships were developed was to help combat the peer-to-peer music piracy that has plagued the music industry for years. For years, colleges and universities have served as the unwitting conduit for this often-illegal activity. Moreover, all this illegal uploading and downloading has cost colleges and universities around the country significantly in terms of bandwidth costs. Also, colleges and universities have become embroiled in controversies regarding the violation of intellectual property. These partnerships are mutually beneficial to Napster and the colleges and universities. Both sides stand to win from their agreement.

The first universities to sign up for this somewhat-unusual partnership were Penn State University and the University of Rochester. These were considered pilot programs of sorts. The partnerships between Napster and these two universities were deemed a success, thus causing other universities to join ranks. Part of the success of these programs no doubt has to do with the fact that Napster has worked hard to make the partnership work for each individual university. Each Napster program is not identical at each campus. Rather, Napster works with each college or university to create a version of its program that fits the needs and interests of each specific campus community. However, the program is similar at the colleges and universities in the sense that Napster provides students with the ability to conduct unlimited streaming and hard drive downloading. Napster also provides all student bodies with access to many of Napster’s most popular features, including access to dozens of commercial-free radio stations, and access to historic Billboard music chart information. Students also have access to Napster’s online magazine, as well as access to the thriving online community that Napster is famous for.