There’s been much secretiveness surrounding the new startup Rdio, who many expect to take a revolutionary tack in the online, subscription-based music world. Though the company’s still in private beta testing, and is short on providing details, the startup has just launched an iPhone app that gives a first glance at what Rdio might actually do.
When the founders of Kazaa, Skype, and Joost do something these days, the tech world tends to take notice. Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the two founders of those companies, have been long on mystery and short on answers with their new project, called Rdio. They’ve hired an impressive team, and built all manner of hype by not giving anyone all the answers.
Bloomberg has covered the startup, as has the Washington Post; it’s been a favorite story of the blogosphere for a while as well. Despite the difference in opinion, general knowledge is that Rdio is going to be a social music service, letting users stream, download and share music via both computers and mobile devices — making money via a monthly subscription fee, and per-song downloads if you’re interested in owning the song permanently.
It looks like Rdio is starting out in the mobile space. Since the iPhone app is still invite-only and only a few people get to use the service, I don’t have any firsthand experience with the app. But here’s the description:
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Rdio is like carrying a giant MP3 player in your pocket – you have unlimited and unrestricted access to all the music, and you get to select exactly the song, album or artist you want to hear. And you can skip, pause fast forward as much as you want.
Build your collection and compose your playlists on rdio.com and listen to them all on the go. Or search for just the right song when you’re out and it will start playing instantly.
– Carry your collection in your pocket
– Build unlimited playlists
– Search the entire Rdio catalog
– Notification when your collaborative playlists are updated
There’s been some reporting of the app being crippled, and mostly just an attempt by Rdio to wade through the waters of the App Store and test its footing. But, given that I can’t use the app anyway, I’m more excited about the possibilities either way.
As a fan of mobile music, there’s a lot of excitement to this one. iPhones, Blackberries, and other mobile devices bring out the possibility of always-on Internet that’s going to be required if streaming music is going to work, and Rdio seems to get that.
There’s been a lot of talk about companies, especially Apple, getting into the “all your media on the web” business, charging a monthly fee for constant access to your music. A few companies are already in the space — Rhapsody’s arguably the leader right now, despite little remaining vested interest, and startups like Spotify and Pandora are gunning for the mobile music space as well, but Rdio sounds promising. Spotify’s probably the most comparable, but it’s not clear if, or when, the service will ever come to the United States.
Rdio’s still shrouded in mystery, but it seems it has big plans for users and their music, from collaborating to create playlists to mixing streaming music with personalized libraries. And, like everyone, I’m just excited about anything from Janus and Nicklas.
Rdio is currently funded by Zennstrom and Friis’ venture capital fund, Atomico Ventures.
