Dell, Napster Team on Music for Students

Companies are offering discounted hardware and software to lure students away from illegal file sharing.

Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service

Dell and Napster have teamed up to offer discounted computers, software, and digital music for U.S. college students, in the name of legal Internet music downloading.

It's a proposition from two companies steeped in college and music file sharing lore. Michael Dell launched his personal computer business in a university dorm room. Napster is the namesake of the software and file-sharing network created by college freshman Shawn Fanning that started the whole music downloading craze. His Napster was shut down after clashes with entertainment industry lawyers, only to be founded again as a house of good repute for legal, for-pay, digital music.

The two companies are offering packages that combine Napster's digital music service and software with Dell's hardware, namely blade servers, to "help colleges and universities offer students a legal way to download music files," Dell says in a statement this week.

The Dell-Napster deal is all about discounts, lower rates for students and faculty at academic institutions, as well as ensuring there's enough bandwidth to handle thousands of downloads at a time.

In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that said operators of Internet file-sharing networks like Grokster can be held liable for copyright infringements on downloaded music, it's a deal that could find widespread support.

Put to the Test

The University of Washington will be the first school to try it out later this year, Dell says. The company will install 10 Dell PowerEdge 1855 blade servers on the University of Washington's Seattle campus. The servers will hold Napster's songs and other content so students can download them faster.

In addition, Dell plans to sell discounted subscriptions to Napster's digital music service and is offering discounts on computer systems, electronics, and its DJ digital music players to faculty, staff, and students of the university.

The company's statement does not give the size of the discounts, nor indicate prices for any of the services or hardware mentioned.

The companies plan to work with universities throughout the U.S. to develop systems suited to each campus, Dell says.