By Adam Holdridge
Staff Writer
Two years ago, the Pepperdine network hosted an infamous student computer named “Fraser.” On this computer the latest music, classics from every musical genre and even movie clips of the many “Saturday Night Live” parodies with Will Ferrell, could be found.
Even with the end of Napster, multi-media content havens like “Fraser” still existed on numerous college and corporate networks across the country. In April, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) began filing lawsuits targeting college students who hosted these media-rich computers.
Today, the “Fraser” computer can no longer be found on the Pepperdine network, but students use programs, such as KaZaa, to download illegal music, video and software.
The RIAA says by downloading music online that an individual has not bought, then that person is committing a felony — stealing.
With the RIAA insisting that consumers purchase music or face multi-million dollar lawsuits, there has to be a legal solution other than having to buy an entire album when only one song is wanted.
The CEO for Apple Computer, Steve Jobs, is now the unlikely hero for the music industry and students with a legal alternative to this national dilemma.
With the introduction of the company’s revolutionary iPod and iTunes service, Jobs has provided a solution that he hopes is agreeable to both the RIAA and consumers.
Apple’s iPod, which can store up to 7,500 songs, is the replacement for the portable CD player. The iPod, which is compatible with PCs and Macs, can house all of your MP3 music files, as well as Apple’s new digital music format Advanced Audio Coding. In addition, the iPod can also be used as an additional hard drive.
The iPod, in conjunction with iTunes, is a perfect match. iTunes functions similar to Microsoft’s Windows media player on Apple computers. However, the latest version of iTunes features an online music store with more than 200,000 music tracks in its library available for download. Individual tracks from favorite artists can be downloaded for 99 cents. In its first week, iTunes had more than a million downloads. Since its launch earlier in the year the iTunes store has had more than 10 million legal downloads. These tracks can be burned onto CDs and also shared with your friends who own other iPods.
However, iTunes is only available for the Mac. Apple deliberately did not make iTunes available to PC users as part of its plan to capture a greater market share in the computing industry (currently Apple only has a 2.3 percent market share worldwide). However, Apple plans to make iTunes available for the PC by November.
The music industry loves Apple and Steve Jobs. In a recent issue of Forbes it was reported that rapper Dr. Dre, after being given a demonstration of the iTunes store by Jobs, said “Man, somebody finally got it right.”
iTunes has been such a success for Apple that other companies have followed suit for the PC market. Real Networks introduced it’s service Rhapsody this year, buy.com introduced buymusic.com and for rare downloads and music from the indie scene visit mp3.com. Roxio has purchased the Napster name and Pressplay music service and plans to launch Napster 2.0, a new pay-per-download service soon. In addition, Dell, Amazon and Gateway all plan to enter into the digital music market.
Junior Jameson Valone, self-professed Mac and iTunes aficionado, swears by the service.
“The iTunes music store is hands down the most convenient way to download copyrighted music legally,” he said. “After account registration, users only need to click once to preview a song for 30 seconds and another click to buy and download the song.”
RIAA plans to financially attack students who download illegally, and their parents, with a wave of new multi-million dollar lawsuits. Even if students don’t believe that there is any harm in using services like KaZaa, downloading legal music from services like iTunes is one of the few legal and affordable solutions currently available.
September 11, 2003