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Assumption Addresses Issues of Music Downloading College officials have announced that Assumption has entered into a contract for the spring semester with Cdigix, the leading provider of legal digital media services exclusively focused on the college marketplace. This agreement will allow residential students on campus to download and play music files as often as they want via a ‘tethered download’ from Ctrax, the digital music service of Cdigix. Ctrax features an expansive catalog of two million recordings, all of which are accessible to students for free. Students were granted access upon returning from winter break. This pilot program will be in place until the end of the semester when an evaluation will be done to determine if the College will continue service with Cdigix. Various on campus student organizations such as the Student Government Association, the Campus Activities Board, Residential Life and student employees of the department of Information Technology were advocates for providing students with a subscription service. These groups reviewed ways in which a music service could improve the satisfaction among students and unanimously selected Cdigix as the provider. John Weaver, Student Government President said, “(Cdigix) provides students with an alternative to the recent wave of illegal music downloading, which hopefully will teach them about new methods of obtaining music. “ Under the agreement, students have the ability to access and listen to the complete library of digital recordings offered by Ctrax. If a student chooses to download a song to a personal MP3 player, or burn it to a CD, then nominal fees are assessed. On a per song basis, students will be required to pay $.89 or they may choose to pay a $5.00 monthly subscription fee for unlimited access to downloading songs from Ctrax. Mimi Royston, associate director of Information Technology praises the decision saying, “This service provides students with legal access to a huge digital library so that they can continue to explore and enjoy music free from legal liability that alternative software cannot provide today. I am proud that Assumption is doing many things to provoke thought about copyright protections for artists and liability issues that college students across the country are facing.” Brett Goldberg, founder and executive vice president of Cdigix, commented, “Assumption College is at the forefront of an important movement to equip students with broad-based, high-quality, legal digital media. We are honored to have the opportunity to provide the campus with Cdigix’s comprehensive services.” The Cdigix content is available to the students over a local area network (LAN), which yields a fast and secure way for students to access legal, downloadable content that doesn’t slow down the College’s Internet connection. Seattle-based Cdigix is the leading provider of secure, legal digital entertainment and educational media to directly serve the college market. The high-quality content offered by Cdigix is available through partnerships with premier entertainment and media companies, and is distributed via the universities’ internal IP infrastructures. Cdigix currently has relationships with dozens of college campuses, reaching approximately half-a-million students. For more information, please visit www.cdigix.com.
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Worcester, MA - Assumption College has made a huge technological advance in the eyes of its students by offering digital access to two million songs for free.