A new way to share music has taken Wesleyan’s computer network by storm. And for once, it’s legal. Apple Computer’s iTunes software seems to have, at least in part, filled the void left from Napster’s demise and the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) crackdown on file swapping with programs such as Kazaa.
Version 4, which was released for Mac months ago and for Windows in October, introduced the ability to stream users’ playlists to other users on a network. It instantly became one of the most popular parts of the program for students on campus since so many users are on the network.
“I used to download music and now I don’t at all,” said Emily Wejchert, ’07. “It’s so convenient!”
iTunes combines a music library that lets users store and organize music, a music store that sells individual songs and albums with the now-popular “Shared Music” feature.
The sharing works by using an Apple technology called “Rendezvous” that lets computers on the same network automatically recognize each other. It’s intended, at least in part, to let multiple computers in the same household share the same music library on a single hard drive, but on college campuses it has taken on this additional use.
At any given time, dozens of Wesleyan students make their music available to the entire community.
“It makes it easier to discover new music,” said Andrew Boatti, ’07. “I love that there is so much music available and it’s technically legal.”
“I can go to a friend’s room on the other side of campus and listen to some of my music if I want,” said Liam McAlpine, ’07.
It’s especially popular at Wesleyan because of the network structure. All students on the campus network are connected, unlike many schools that break it up by region of the campus, meaning that only users in the same region can share music.
The program only lets users play music off another computer’s hard drive; it does not allow the swapping of individual files. If another user is not currently running iTunes, his or her music is not available to the community.
But this has not prevented students from using it to exchange music; many users have put their Instant Messenger screen names in the title of their collection so interested listeners can contact the holder of the music and ask for songs.
While this is illegal, it is hard for the industry to track. But for students, it can have unexpected boons.
“I made a friend through iTunes!” Wejchert said. “He just IMed me saying, ‘nice music’ and we’ve become friends ever since. It brings music dorks together.”
Not everyone is enthused by this new feature, though.
“I don’t really use it all that much,” said Liam McAlpine, ’07. “It’s really nice when I get bored with my collection, but as it is, I have a few CD’s that I haven’t even listened to yet, so I can’t neglect those.”
Also, since the technology only works on the Wesleyan network, students who live in houses or off-campus are shut out.
“This is because of our firewall protection,” said Shaine Truscott ’06, an ITS helpdesk consultant.
But for those on the network, iTunes may actually improve the connections on campus. If people cut down on their use of Kazaa and other file swapping services that let people get files from outside the campus, it will increase bandwidth and reduce vulnerabilities to viruses.
“Now that Apple has released iTunes for Windows, I think that a lot more people are going to become aware of the application and it could perhaps overtake illegal downloading applications,” Truscott said.
Liberty Mcateer, ’06, a coworker of Truscott’s, agreed, “Running Kazaa is something you really should stay away from,” he said. “The cables of our network can only do so much.”
iTunes can be downloaded free from Apple’s website (www.apple.com).
While many money-starved college students may not be rushing out to buy the iPod, a popular portable mp3 player designed to interface with iTunes, many seem to enjoy their new music sharing abilities.
“Using iTunes ‘Shared Music’ I was finally able to get my hands on some Radiohead, and man, they rock!” said Zachary Potter-Vose, ’06.“
Leave a Reply