The recording industry and digital music retailers are in discussions with various colleges and universities to offer legitimate sources of music to students, either for free or at a substantial discount, in exchange for the schools agreeing to take steps to deter piracy on campus networks. The goal of the agreement would be to provide students with an extensive online jukebox that would allow them to play songs on- demand. The typical $10-per-month charge would either be waived or buried in the students’ activities fees, and songs could be burned onto CDs or transferred to MP3 players for one dollar or less per track. Insiders hope the new concept can be launched as early as the beginning of 2004. “This is a great opportunity to tap into this university base, show them the promise of digital music, [and] show them the compelling digital offerings,” Musicmatch Inc. President/COO Peter Csathy told the Los Angeles Times. The biggest hurdle for the RIAA will be convincing school administrators that students should be deterred from online piracy. “Part of it was that they weren’t yet feeling the real heat,” said Peter Fader, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “So unfortunately, it will come down to when the threats are large enough, either legal or financial. Then it will happen.” For a fully sanctioned service to succeed on campus, colleges would have to block access to unauthorized ones, such as Kazaa or Morpheus. Many colleges have been unwilling to block such peer-to-peer networks, but they may have no choice if they want to persuade record companies to offer the lower royalty rates to their campus services.
