Under an agreement announced Thursday between the UNC system and Napster LLC, system campuses can now work out individual contracts with the digital music company to provide downloading services for students.
"It enables the campuses to have a longer term arrangement in providing those resources to students," said Robyn Render, UNC-system vice president for information resources. "We certainly anticipate some of them will."
Napster was among the four music providers included in the system's semester-long online music initiative, which ran from January to April and allowed students on six campuses a free trial of the different programs.
Napster, Cdigix, Rhapsody and Ruckus Network were all included in the trial initiative, and students at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University had access to all four during the 2005 spring semester.
The master agreement signed with Napster is not exclusive, and system officials said they hope to have similar arrangements worked out with other providers.
"I think many of the campuses want to, perhaps, have multiple providers," Render said. "I think our providers are going to come and go."
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