Friday, October 22, 2004

REMINDER

To: Area Media

From: Mimi Cunningham

Date: Oct. 22, 2004

Re: Monday, Oct. 25 Event Showcases Free Music Pilot for UNCW Residence Hall Students

Effective Friday, Oct. 15, free music downloads became available to UNCW residence hall students. Thanks to the combined efforts of Information Technology Systems, Student Affairs and the UNC Office of the President, UNCW is one of four universities in the UNC system to implement a music pilot this fall. Until the end of the semester, students who live in the residence halls will have access to nearly one million music tracks through Cdigix, and they can download these tracks onto a Windows computer or a Windows media-enabled portable device and listen to them free of charge. Students also have the option to pay 89 cents per song for a permanent download, which can be burned to a CD or MP3 player and kept forever.

Cdigix will be on campus for a big tent event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday, Oct. 25, in the yard between Galloway Residence Hall and the University Apartments. There will be free food, entertainment, giveaways such as CDs, key chains and Frisbees, and demonstrations on how to use Cdigix’s service. Media are invited to cover this event and get student reaction.

It is illegal to share copyrighted materials through peer-to-peer file sharing; however, this option is a legal and virus-free alternative. If the fall pilot is successful, next semester Cdigix will give students the option of rolling into an “opt in – opt out” model for a monthly service fee of $2.99, plus a small cost to burn songs to CDs.