Cdigix subscription a great value; community interaction service free for students
We are thrilled to have launched Cdigix’ digital music services at the university yesterday and are working to provide the best possible digital entertainment experience. The service is now available for all undergraduates to enjoy at no charge, and we encourage them to take advantage of it as soon as possible.
We also want to clarify a few points made in yesterday’s Diamondback article. One of the reasons we are the leading digital music provider to colleges, with 21 partner schools to date, is that we offer deeply discounted prices. We are excited that the Ctrax subscription is available at no charge to eligible students. Even at the standard pricing of about $3 a month for a subscription — not $10, as reported in the story — it is an incredible value. Subscribers can legally download as many songs as they want from the extensive library of more than 1.2 million files, from all the major record labels and thousands of smaller and independent labels.
We also want to explain that our music download service is different from a file-sharing service. Instead of sharing files, monthly subscribers can enjoy any of the tracks they download on up to three computers (such as their dorm, laptop and home computers) using a “tethered download.” Students can also permanently own tracks or albums that they know are from a verifiable source and then do what they want with them — including burn them to CDs or transfer them to a portable device. Tracks cost 89 cents — 10 cents less than other music download services — and albums are $9.99.
In addition, our community interaction service, called Cvillage, is accessible to students at no charge. Other services we offer, such as Cflix — our broadband video-on-demand service that includes the movie pay-per-view option — are not currently available at the university but are being reviewed by university administrators.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to shed more light on our services. We hope your students visit www.oit.umd.edu/musicservice/ and try them out right away. We also encourage users to send any comments or questions to us at support@cdigix.com
Bret Goldberg
President and founder
Cdigix
Fans shouldn’t abandon basketball team, but they do have a right to be disappointed
With the Terrapin men’s basketball team headed to the National Invitation Tournament under a hellfire of criticism, there is a lot of talk about fair-weather fans. There has been a split between those who feel they are true fans and those who have called it a season. Terp fans are called spoiled because of their expectations of making the NCAA tournament and their resentment that the streak of consecutive appearances ended. While I don’t agree with abandoning the team because of its shortcomings, I don’t think fans are spoiled. Students choose this university over many other schools because they know about the athletic history and want to be part of it. The Terps should have made the tournament this year. The team didn’t live up to expectations, and the players have no one to blame but themselves. I’ll watch the NIT games and support the Terps for the rest of the season, but fans are not in the wrong for being disappointed after a team that has shown its potential greatness on several instances poo-poos the proverbial bed.
Alejandro Valencia
University graduate
Class of 2004
