Ruckus music service calls it quits

While there's clearly demand for downloadable music, there's clearly not enough of it being funneled to Ruckus Network. The oft forgotten music service -- which somehow reckoned it could take on the likes of Rhapsody, Apple, Microsoft and countless others in the saturated digital download space -- has officially folded. Quite honestly, we're shocked that it managed to hang on for this many years, though we suppose its demise was always just a matter of time. Ruckus' homepage now directs to the image you see above, giving the four avid users no indication of whether any partial refunds or gratis hugs will be given out. Rest in peace, Ruckus -- we're sure you'll find comfort in knowing that you were already dead to 99 percent of us.

[Thanks, nizzy1115 and Gabriel]

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 8th 2009 5:00PM]

I loved ruckus! I had over 5000 songs. Is there any way to get the liscence back on them and keep the songs i had previously downloaded?

[P1h3r1e3d13 Posted Feb 8th 2009 6:28PM]

On the plus side, now it's legal for me to strip the DRM from my thousands of Ruckus songs.

@Jacob: tools mentioned above include Tunebite, FairUse4WM, and mirakagi. Give 'em a googe. Also, a search for Ruckus DRM should turn up some instructions (involving previous versions of Windows Media Player, deals with the devil, and licking your elbow) for removing Ruckus DRM. I don't know if they still work or not.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 13th 2009 11:41PM]

I have tried FairUseWM, but it will not go through with the DRM removal because it only authorizes the action for legally licensed .wma files. Of course I downloaded my Ruckus songs legally, but now that I cannot access the player and update the licenses, none of these DRM stripping programs acknowledge my files as my legal property!

This is so frustrating! I had thousands of songs waiting to be converted with TuneBite, but I just never got around to it. I was hoping Mirakagi and FairUse would not require valid licenses to strip the DRM, but it seems that they do. Can anyone help me?!