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At least 20 U.S. universities have signed agreements with "legitimate" music download sites in the past year, in a move to prevent students from unauthorized downloads using peer-to-peer services, the Recording Industry Association of America reports this week.

The RIAA, as part of the 2-year-old Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities, reported that institutions such as The Pennsylvania State University, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, the University of Miami, and Cornell University signed agreements with Roxio's Napster. Other universities have deals with Ctrax, MusicRebellion.com, Ruskus, and RealNetworks.

A year ago, no such agreements existed, says Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA. "Since the beginning of last year, we have seen extraordinary progress on all counts," Sherman says. "This is a trend that will only continue to proliferate, and we could not be more pleased.

Proving Popular

Although the RIAA didn't provide concrete numbers on the popularity of these for-pay services on college campuses, Penn State is already getting requests for expanded services, says Graham Spanier, university president.

Penn State's basic service, which is paid for as part of student IT fees, offers unlimited streaming audio. Students can store songs on their computer hard drives for $0.99 a song, and the university plans to soon offer students the option of storing songs on portable devices for a monthly fee, Spanier says.

The advantage for students is that, unlike some P-to-P services, these university-run download services don't include spyware or adware, can have higher quality files, and lack the risk of being sued by the RIAA, Sherman says. In March and April, the RIAA filed lawsuits against 158 file-traders using university networks to access P-to-P services.

"Once students are introduced to the qualitative difference, we think they will become addicted to the habit and become long-term music purchasers," Sherman says. "That's the good news for us."

Added Benefits

The fee-based services also teach students that artists deserve to be paid, Sherman says. "There is a legion of college music fans who are currently getting their music illegally and for free, and they're getting the impression that music has no value," Sherman says. "These fans are the future of this industry, though, and we need to work to connect them to the legitimate marketplace."

The move to fee-based music download services has also produced advantages for universities, says Spanier, co-chairman with Sherman of the joint committee. In Penn State's deal with Napster, the music files reside on Penn State's network, cutting down on the amount of outside bandwidth needed to download music.

"Our [system] is clean, it's fast, it's high quality, it's risk free, and it's legal," Spanier says.

The joint committee will give its report on university activity to the U.S. Congress, which has held several hearings on music downloading in the past two years.

Representatives of Sharman Networks, which distributes the Kazaa P-to-P software, and P2P United, a P-to-P lobbying group, weren't immediately available to comment on the RIAA report.