Stanford: Yahoo sales unit
p2p news / p2pnet:- It doesn`t get any more blatant than this.
Organized Music in the shape of Warner, EMI Group, Sony BMG and Vivendi Universal, used Penn State to open the way for US campuses to be used as hard-core marketing and sales divisions.
Now Yahoo is getting in on it, weaseling its downloan rental service into a high-profile university.
Stanford is working with Yahoo! and an anonymous donor on a pilot program that gives undergraduate and graduate students free subscriptions to the recently established online music service, says the Stanford Report.
Students will have to supply a credit card number for the `free` service, but they won`t be charged unless students continue their subscriptions after the free pilot or purchases a burnable download (79 cents), promises university director of business development Susan Weinstein.
Gee. Will all those credit card details be trashed if a student decides he or she doesn’t want to start paying when the ‘free’ offer ends? Dream on.
Meanwhile, anyone who stays with Yahoo will be charged almost $2 a month for a ‘basic’ service “with no ability to transfer music to a portable device,” and almost $5 per month if they want to listen to their music on a mobile player.
Get it while it lasts
“We wanted to give our students the chance to try something new and fun since a large majority of them listen to music on a daily basis,” she says. “The scales were tipped in favor of Yahoo!
And, “We look at this as a great opportunity to spread the word on the extensive benefits of subscription music to true music and technology fans,” Yahoo Music`s Dave Goldberg is quoted as saying.
Stanford is combining the Yahoo deal with another commercial sales effort, the Stanford Report says.
Stanford students and faculty with Yahoo! Music Unlimited subscriptions who purchase a Zen Micro portable audio player at the Stanford Bookstore are eligible for a $50 mail-in rebate while the offer lasts, says in a major sales pitch which includes a detailed product description.
In recent years, the recording industry has warned some Stanford-network users about their file-sharing activities, says the story.
However, we hope that students will use this robust, easy-to-use alternative to illegal file sharing, but we also think it is just a great service, giving students access to a compelling music experience,” says Weinstein.
For the pre-hooked
When they graduate, pre-hooked students will be expected to pay $7.00 a month, or $60 a year, to make sure their music don`t vanish into the sunset, which is the fate of all digital music rentals when punters decide they don`t want the `service` any more.
To evaluate the benefits of offering a music service to students, the university assembled a team representing a broad cross section of the campus community, Weinstein boasts.
It included Chris Lin, former chair of the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) Undergraduate Senate; Diana Gentry, an undergraduate student who also serves as a resident computer coordinator; Mike Woodward, an undergraduate; Nanci Howe, associate dean of students and director of student activities; Joshua Schiller, associate director of residential education central operations; Bruce Vincent, a senior technology strategist with information technology systems and services; Richard Holeton, information systems project manager for residential computing; Sindy Lee, a business software developer for residential computing; Lauren Schoenthaler, senior counsel in the university office of the general counsel;” and, of course, Weinstein.
In addition, ASSU President Melanie Kannokada and Jennifer Ly, resident computer coordinator manager, have been key members of the implementation team, adds the Stanford Report.
Who paid for their time and efforts. Not Yahoo.
And you thought school were for learning.
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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win
- Mohandas Gandhi
Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local political representatives. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance.
October 14th, 2005 at 7:04 pm
We are not people to the government-cartel alliances, we are merchandise. They believe that we are here simply to line their pockets and to service them. I am glad that I do not attend Stanford and have to put up with the in your face marketing that these students deal with.
It is a shame that the studentd must pay good tuition money for the privilege of seeing advertisements. What lows will the cartels sink to next?
I would not purchase anything from this Yahoo. This is the company that turned in that reporter for sending an email. It is also a company that sells spam support services such as domain redirection. Like many other companies that have so-called “privacy policies,” they write their provacy policy in a form of legalese that grants them all kinds of exceptions rendering privacy null and void. Yahoo is also affiliated with SBC communications which has a reputation of ripping people off. No thanks, I prefer peer to peer of FreeWan downloading.
October 17th, 2005 at 3:51 pm
They should just setup DC Hubs, the best way to share