The University of Colorado at Boulder this week began offering the nation's largest music subscription service, including more than 2.2 million legally downloadable songs, to all residents of its campus residence halls, Family Housing and the Bear Creek Apartments at no charge.
Ctrax, used by more than 75 universities nationwide including Yale, Duke and UCLA, features an extensive catalog from all of the major record companies and thousands of independent labels. The collection includes 100,000 artists and 23 different genres.
The Ctrax service was provided at no cost to the university, said Robert Dixon, information technology director for CU-Boulder's Housing and Dining Services. The high-quality digital downloads are fast and free of viruses, adware and spyware, he said.
"This is the largest legal digital music library available for downloading and includes all types of music," Dixon said. "Music that can't be found in other places can often be found here, including tracks that music students can use in their classes.
"It's an avenue that keeps students legal and also provides tremendous access to sample and listen to all kinds of music," he said. "It's a win-win situation."
Through a simple sign-in process, Ctrax recognizes each eligible student's e-mail address and allows him or her to immediately use its features. Ctrax subscribers can download single tracks or entire CDs, and can access their accounts from up to three different computers. Ctrax users also can create play lists, share music tracks with friends and view hundreds of music videos.
In addition to the free basic monthly subscription service, Ctrax also provides users the option of permanently owning the music as well as transferring it to portable listening devices for a nominal charge, Dixon said. An individual song purchase is 89 cents and an entire album is $9.99. The Ctrax2Go product costs $6.99 per month.
Music that students choose to purchase can be burned to CDs or transferred to portable MP3 players or iPods, Dixon said. Music industry standards currently do not allow Macintosh users to benefit from the free subscription service because of Apple Computer's proprietary digital rights manager, or DRM. However, other services are provided for Macintosh users.
Illegal downloading of copyrighted commercial music is prohibited by CU-Boulder policy and is a violation of federal law, Dixon said. Ctrax does not impact the workings of university computers because it is primarily distributed over the housing department's residential network based in the residence halls, he said.
Cdigix Inc., originally founded in Denver, is the leading provider of digital media services to universities. The Seattle-based company has relationships with campuses across the country including DePaul University, Ohio University, Tufts University, University of California at San Diego, Wake Forest University, University of Maryland and the University of Denver.
For more information about the Ctrax service offered by CU-Boulder's Housing and Dining Services go to housing.colorado.edu/freemusic.