Rdio — pronounced r-dee-o — has some spelling problems. But it is a very ambitious startup that hopes to liberate consumers from some annoying restrictions when listening to online music.
The San Francisco company, brought to you by the creators of the Kazaa music service and Skype internet voice calls, is creating a new social music service that stores the music you listen to in the cloud and feeds it to your devices as you want. The company, which was partially outed in December, is formally coming out of hiding today.
The war field seems to be getting alive once again. After the big offer Pandora made to Rdio in order to buy its assets for $75 million in cash last year, the eyes have turned now to Spotify presenting it as an enemy of the whole music industry. But why is that?
Apple strategy seems clear. In order to become the best the easiest thing to do is BUY your competitors. Pathetic if you ask me.
The thing is Apple can afford to buy out its competition, and despite the fact that Spotify is king, Apple could have bought them with the right amount if money. Because Money Is The Ultimate King.
Its better to make friends with the artists you are trying to make money off of. This is purely smart business on their part.
TNW:
Just over a month ago we were shocked and saddened to find out that cult-favorite Rdio was being acquired by Pandora for $75 million, and would ultimately shut down. Today, we were met with a healthy dose of reality as we saw the service officially shut down just minutes ago.
While it was never my go-to streaming service, Rdio had a special place in my heart and held on to a sort of cult-like following through a slick minimalist interface and a bevy of features that were utilized and improved upon over time by other services.
As good as the service was at times, the fall was inevitable.
Consumerist: As we reported about a month ago, the streaming music service Rdio has been acquired by Pandora. Rather than keeping the service alive, Pandora plans to shut it down and use its technology and some employees for their own purposes. They might make it part of their current service, or plan to add a playlist-style streaming music app. If you’ve used Rdio, it’s time to download any content that you want to keep.
