The subscription-based multimedia service known as Ruckus is gone and service “will no longer be provided,” according to their web site.  Ruckus provided a deep catalog of free and legal music downloads for college students. It was a way of offering an alternative to the many illegal web sites that mostly offered Mal-ware and Viruses along with the requested music downloads.  It filled a necessary void for students, who get inundated with media daily, but might not have the money or legal services to access new music or videos – not to mention staying away from copyright infringement and the RIAA.  Ruckus was bought in 2008 by Total Music, a Sony and Universal Music Group company. What happens next is any one’s guess…

Remember Muxtape? It was a place to upload and create all kinds of ‘virtual mixtapes’ for your friends to hear, or for folks to dicover new sounds. After a long battle with the RIAA (RIAA won this battle), Muxtape is back online. But guess what? It’s not the same. Muxtape now functions more like the audio player on MySpace.com It has a new set of rules and if you’re the artist, feel free to add music for others to hear, but no longer can users add copyrighted music or sounds.  This is great for the discovery of new bands, but I think the competition is just too great to stay afloat right now – unless they hurry and partner with another source, preferably a social media outlet to help expose the newly re-launched site. As for the old muxtape? There are several other sources to check out that might look familiar: 8Tracks, Virb, and my personal favorite, Favtape. Enjoy.

The music industry wants to embrace technology and the Internet? Well, it’s about time… Now let’s see what they have in mind, because it’s my opinion that the music industry is it’s own worst enemy.  According the the RIAA, 95% of the music downloads in 2008 were done illegally. (more…)