While some students choose to take a risk by downloading music illegally, others use legal services like Napster and iTunes to get their music.
The music pirates face possible criminal charges for their actions while the legal downloaders are emptying their pockets for tunes.
Though a legal download service was once a topic of discussion for the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska, it may not be a reality for University of Nebraska-Lincoln students.
Brittani Dutton, campus life chair for ASUN, said preliminary research had shown music downloading vendors did not have the program they were looking for.
ASUN President Matt Schaefer said ASUN hoped to find a service that would allow UNL students to contract the downloading service free of charge while they were students.
"UNL may have to be innovators in this idea," said Schaefer, a senior political science major.
So far, all of the music downloading vendors would require a fee to be paid by the university, said Dutton, a junior criminal justice major.
Dutton said she spoke with a student representative from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., to discuss the music service the university provided to its students last year. Cornell cancelled its service because students were unable to transfer the music from computers to MP3 players.
Dutton said bringing the service to UNL might prove to be more difficult than she initially thought.
"I knew it would be a lot of work," she said, "but I think the work will be worth it as long as the end result is worth it."
Schaefer said the service could be a beneficial recruitment tool for prospective UNL students.
David Burge, the associate director of admissions at UNL, said he thought a downloading service would reflect the university's approach to technology. He said while it could be appealing to prospective students, it would not be the deciding factor.
"I really doubt someone will choose or not choose (a school) based on a single factor," Burge said.
Kent Hendrickson, the associate vice chancellor of information services, said the University of Nebraska at Kearney introduced a music-downloading service last year. He said the university provided a server for the students to download the information, but the school did not pay for the songs downloaded.
"Students had to pay for it," Hendrickson said, "and they didn't use it very much."
The main issue for UNL would be determining where the funds to pay for the service would come from, he said.
The funding for a music-downloading program would likely come from student fees, Schaefer said.
"It would be inappropriate for the money to come from state funds," he said.
Dutton said students would be able to opt out of the service if they chose not to use the music download service. Students who opt out could get a refund of their fees.
"I don't think students would mind paying $30 for a music program," she said.
