Napster has been partnering with universities to provide students low-cost, legal access to their favorite music since January, and the two schools that have had the most experience with the service said it is working out well.

Pennsylvania State University and the University of Rochester currently provide the service to students. Others soon to follow include Cornell University, George Washington University, Middlebury College, the University of Miami, the University of Southern California and Wright State University.

The online music service is offering its premium service at a discount to universities, which then extend the service to students at a reduced price or even for free.

Iowa State is still not seriously considering partnering with Napster or any other online music download service right now, said Mike Bowman, assistant director for Academic Information Technologies.

“To my knowledge there hasn’t been any formal discussions about it,” Bowman said.

Penn State implemented Napster’s University Program as part of their effort to become more student-centered, said Tysen Kendig, manager of the news bureau for university relations at Penn State.

The fact music plays a big part in student life isn’t a secret, nor is the growing problem with copyright infringement and music piracy, Kendig said.

“The chance to provide a legal alternative … was too good for us to let slip by,” he said.

Robert Kraus, associate vice president for public relations at the University of Rochester, said the service is also an opportunity to educate students about illegal file sharing while giving students the music they want.

“It becomes another tool for us in terms of convincing students there are better ways to get to music,” Kraus said.

Both Kraus and Kendig agreed it’s too early to tell if the availability of the Napster service is affecting the amount of illegal downloads at their respective schools. Kendig said Penn State expects the problem to lessen because students have no reason to use illegal methods when they have free access to the Napster service.

Should Iowa State utilize such a program, Bowman said music piracy may be lessened because students would have legal access to the same music as illegal peer-to-peer networks.

“If you provide another free source, from the student’s perspective, as long as they can find what they want, what they’re looking for in terms of specific music, I would have to assume they would use that source,” Bowman said.

At Penn State, which implemented the pilot program in January 2004, students living in campus residence halls with the necessary system requirements can participate, Kendig said.

Of the approximately 13,000 students eligible, he said about 85 percent signed up for the service.

The pilot program was successful, causing the university to extend the service to both on and off campus students for the summer term, he said.

The University of Rochester began with a test group as well, Kraus said. Both Kendig and Kraus said implementation has gone smoothly so far and student response has been good.