The University of Maryland has agreements that give students, faculty, and staff access to two sources of legal media downloading:

This Just In: Ruckus is no longer providing its music downloading service. Additional information will be posted as it becomes available.

Ruckus offers students free access to more than 3 million songs in the Ruckus music library, social networking features like playlist-sharing and University of Maryland-specific download popularity lists. This service is also available to university faculty and staff members for a small fee. In addition, Ruckus also provides you with the option to purchase and permanently own individual tracks for 79-99 cents or full albums for about $9.99 and offers low-cost subscription programs that allow you to have permanent download/burn access to unlimited music and movie downloads.

iTunes U gives the university community free access to UM-related instructional and informational multimedia content. It also serves as a gateway from the university to the iTunes store where university community members can purchase legal music and video tracks. Visit the university's iTunes U site (currently in a pilot state).

While Ruckus and iTunes U are resources that serve the UM community through official agreements with the university, they are not the only sources that provide legal music and video downloads on the Internet. Visit PlayFair to learn more about legal versus illegal downloading, the possible consequences of illegal downloading, and additional resources for legal content.

The University of Maryland’s History of Offering Music Downloading

In 2005, student and administrative task forces considered a number of digital music providers (including iTunes) before selecting a service. Service selection was based on the breadth of the product and competitive pricing. Using these factors, Cdigix was the clear choice. Later in 2005, the University System of Maryland pursued a procurement process for a system-wide service. Cdigix was announced as the selection for the system in March of 2006.

In April 2007, Cdigix discontinued its music service, so the university began work to find a replacement. The University System of Maryland procured Ruckus for its schools, and in July 2007, Ruckus came online here at Maryland. In fall 2007, the University of Maryland's iTunes U page came online, offering the university community access to educational, instructional, and informational materials as well as an additional gateway to legal music and video downloads through the iTunes Store. Maryland's iTunes U is currently being redeveloped to provide appropriate and convenient access for both the university community and the public. Its academic use section is currently being pilot tested by selected university faculty members.

No student or university funds directly pay the companies for these music services. The only extent that university funds are involved at all is in paying the wages of a small number of university staff who dedicate a portion of their time to these programs.