iPoet

Freshmen at Seton Hall University have probably been warned, like their peers at colleges across the country, against illegally downloading songs and movies. But there’s at least one download that the university is encouraging students to make: a recording of a memorable reading by Billy Collins, a recent U.S. poet laureate.

Through a deal with Audible—a company that sells digital audiobooks and other spoken-word recordings—Seton Hall will let every freshman download Mr. Collins’s reading, recorded last year at a New York symphony hall, free. First-year students at the university receive brand new laptops when they arrive on campus. But the recording, like all of Audible’s offerings, can also be transferred to iPods, smart cellphones, and other portable devices.

“It’s a fantastic piece of audio,” says Brian Fitzgerald, the president of Audible Education, of the 90-minute performance, which includes an introduction by the actor Bill Murray and a series of light-hearted recitations by Mr. Collins. “A lot of it is very tongue-in-cheek.”

The company, though, is quite serious about extending its reach to colleges and universities. Audible recently released a line of digital study guides based on popular textbooks, and the company hopes to convince campus officials that its product line is well-suited to the learning habits of millennials. “Whether they’re walking across campus, or on their commute, students can use their idle time as a learning time,” Mr. Fitzgerald says. —Brock Read