Ruckus Community Experiences Unprecedented Growth Fueled By Ad-Supported Model, Partnerships With 100+ Schools and Recent "Free For All" Announcement
February 28, 2007
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today at Digital Music Forum East, Ruckus Network, Inc., the provider of the premier college-only multimedia service, released data that demonstrates the rapid and significant proliferation of its free and legal music downloading service, Ruckus(R), on colleges and university campuses across the United States, where both administrators and students are realizing the many benefits the service provides.
The Ruckus community now comprises several hundred thousand members and has grown by more than 33 percent in the past six weeks alone. The Ruckus service also continues to expand, giving Ruckus members easy and immediate access to the library of more than 2.5 million high fidelity, virus-free music tracks from every major label, as well as an impressive and expansive list of independent labels. An analysis of current member activity reveals that in the last thirty days, 22.7 million tracks have been legally downloaded through Ruckus.
Additionally, Ruckus members are increasingly using the service’s social networking features, setting up profiles, commenting on the message boards, writing record and artist reviews and sharing play lists as they explore the expansive Ruckus catalog of today's hits along with the hits from years past. Member feedback demonstrates that Ruckus users are sending personal media recommendations to friends and neighbors, browsing classmates’ profiles and media libraries, meeting new friends and using the “Invite A Friend” feature to share the Ruckus experience with friends at other colleges and universities.
Since moving to an advertising-supported business model a year ago, eliminating music downloading subscription fees charged to students or to academic institutions, the Ruckus service has also expanded 14-fold, making it one of the fastest growing member-based communities on the Internet.
“Ruckus continues to build a rapidly-expanding community of college students who share tastes and interests as they engage with one of the largest legitimate catalogs of online music today,” said Mike Bebel, CEO of Ruckus Network, Inc. “Our community shapes the experience at Ruckus and we appreciate and encourage their involvement.”
Ruckus’ Proliferation at Partner Schools
Ruckus has seen explosive growth at many colleges and universities that have established contractual agreements with Ruckus to deliver and market the service to their student body, both on-campus and off-campus. These include:
* Michigan State University – 12,000 students have joined Ruckus and have legally downloaded nearly 3 million songs.
* University of Dayton –over 8,000 students have become Ruckus members and legally downloaded more than 2.8 million songs.
* Georgia Tech – where more than 9,300 students have joined Ruckus (from the total undergraduate student population of 14,000 students) and have legally downloaded more than 3.2 million songs.
* Appalachian State University – 7,100 students have become Ruckus members and have legally downloaded more than 2.3 million songs.
* Ball State University – 8,225 students have joined Ruckus and have legally downloaded more than 2.9 million songs.
* University of Delaware – over 9,800 students have become Ruckus members and legally downloaded more than 2 million songs.
* University of Minnesota – 13,500 students have joined Ruckus and legally downloaded 1.9 million songs.
* The University of Oklahoma – 8,400 students have become Ruckus members and have legally downloaded 1.8 million songs.
Ruckus Delivers For Administrators, Students
“Two weeks after launching the Ruckus service, Sacred Heart University had over 1,800 sign-ups, representing more than 50 percent of our resident student population,” said Saburo Usami, Director of Networking, Telecomm, I.T. Security, Sacred Heart University. “Online music and social networking are an integral part of modern student life. Ruckus not only makes it significantly safer to participate in those services, but also makes it convenient, quick, and cost-free."
“I think Ruckus is really useful for college students like myself because I take my laptop everywhere on-campus and anytime I want to hear more music from an artist that's been recommended to me by a friend, I can download as many albums as I want off of the site,” said Julie Dwyer, an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California (USC). “With Ruckus, everything downloads and licenses immediately so I can listen to 10-15 new tracks for free within minutes. It's fast, easy, and there is SO much good music - both mainstream and indie. Since I am morally opposed to stealing music and literally do not have $10 a month to pay for a subscription service, I think it’s great.”
“Free For All” Spreads Like WildFire
On January 22, 2007 Ruckus became available for free to any college student with a valid .edu email account. Since that time, students at more than 700 schools nationwide have joined the Ruckus community. In addition, record numbers of new members continue to join Ruckus with this effort fueled by a powerfully viral word-of-mouth campaign conducted by existing Ruckus members.
About Ruckus Network, Inc.
Ruckus Network, Inc. provides the premier digital entertainment network designed specifically for college students. The Ruckus experience blends college students’ top interests – friends and entertainment – to create a strong sense of community at universities across the country. Whether looking for a roommate with similar interests or someone who enjoys hip hop music as much as they do, Ruckus members are able to find friends through media and media through friends. Today, the Ruckus service is available to hundreds of thousands of U.S. college students and is quickly becoming the brand of choice for higher education institutions nationwide. For more information, please visit our corporate site at www.RuckusNetwork.com or our service at www.Ruckus.com.
Contacts
BluePoint Venture Marketing
Tim Hurley or Andrew Soucy, 781-861-7800
tim@bluepointmktg.com
andrew@bluepointmktg.com
or
Ruckus Network
Chris Lawson, 703-464-6551
clawson@ruckus.com
