UW to pay $24,000 for Napster deal

Kayla Webley
2005-07-27
The Daily

The financial details of the contractual agreement between the UW, Napster and Dell show the University will pay Napster $24,000 for student use licenses.

The $24,000 fee will cover a $2 per month academic license fee, for 8 months, for 1,500 students. Dell will also pay $24,000 for an additional 1,500 student licenses.

Dell will contribute a total of $84,087. Along with the student licenses, Dell will pay for 10 PowerEdge servers, valued at $52,887, and their installation -- valued at $7,200.

In exchange for their financial contribution Dell is allowed several opportunities to market to students on campus.

Under the provisions the University must exclusively promote the Dell branded DJ, secure two Dell kiosks on campus to feature Dell products and services, facilitate a Dell launch event in the back-to-school timeframe, host Dell information on the UW website, execute an email campaign and participate in a case study.

The UW's monetary contribution comes from the UW computing and communications department's discretionary fund, said Norm Arkans, UW executive director of media relations and communications.

"These are not state appropriated funds," said Arkans. "[The money is] not from the student technology fee, not tax funding and not tuition."

Instead the money in the fund comes from royalties generated by software and technology that is developed by the University and licensed to manufacturers and users.

Residence hall students will use the 3,000 student licenses purchased by the UW and Dell on the Dell servers. With the license, students will have full access to Napster's basic service.

The agreement makes the UW the first university to offer a free, legal music downloading service in coordination with a hardware provider.