UM offers free online music access

The University of Miami is one of 10 schools across the nation trying to do their part to discourage illegal song-sharing by offering free online music access to its students.

BY EUNICE SIGLER

esigler@herald.com

Faced with a seething music industry that has already unleashed a wave of lawsuits to stop illegal music downloads, some colleges are lining up to get their students a legal alternative.

So far, 10 schools across the country -- including the University of Miami -- have signed up with Napster, a popular music downloading system, to give their students legal access to music on the Web.

UM started its pilot program Aug. 23, meaning free online music access for all its undergraduate students, nearly 10,000 of them.

Using their school IDs, students can log on to the Napster website and download the software. Then, they can access hundreds of thousands of songs without having to worry about police knocking at their doors.

They can put Napster on up to three computers and can even create playlists on their hard drives, effectively turning their computers into their own personal radio stations.

If they want to put songs on a CD, it costs 99 cents each.

The students get the same service the public would pay $9.95 a month for, and the schools get to buy it at a discounted price neither Napster nor the schools will disclose.

CATCHING ON

''We were able to do that in large part because of the recording industry. Each of us is willing to cut our profits to virtually nothing in order to change behavior,'' said Aileen Atkins, a senior head of business affairs at Napster.

The program at UM is slowly catching on. During the first few weeks of the pilot, 3,000 students downloaded Napster to their computers, said Stewart Seruya, UM's chief security and network officer.

It beats constantly trying to outsmart the pirates, he said.

''We block a good portion of it, but some kids get around it,'' he said. ``This hopefully will give them a [legal] channel to still get the music and still play with it.''

For Vance Aloupis, who successfully ran for student government president last year by promising to bring Napster on campus, it's also a matter of pride.

It was tough selling his campaign pledge to university brass, he said.

'At first they said, `We really don't see any academic benefit to it,' '' Aloupis said.

But he did some research and found that there is.

Napster has close to a million songs available online. Sure, the kids can get their favorites from Hoobastank and Coldplay, but they can also access older, more obscure songs -- songs that might be taught in a music class.

ACCESS TO CLASSICS

''Instead of a student having to go to the basement of a library and listening to a scratchy record that's probably already checked out, they can listen to it here,'' Atkins said.

That helped the UM folks come around. That, and the fact that for eons college students have always been into music.

''We did a survey last February and March, and this is the number one thing the students wanted to see,'' said Pat Whitely, a head of student affairs at UM.

She was one of the skeptics, but not now.

''We're thrilled with it, and the students are really, really happy,'' she said.

Kevin Corrales, a 21-year-old senior at the school, said he likes being able to pick and choose.

'I'm basically sampling tons of stuff, so I don't have to buy it and later decide, `I hate this CD,' '' he said.

``If you like one song on a CD, then you can just buy one song.''

Napster also has message boards where students can share thoughts on music with other students from their school.

Pennsylvania State University made headlines by being the first school to sign on with Napster.

An official there said the spring pilot program was so successful that they're now offering it to 83,000 students at 24 campuses.