Rdio (pronounced "r-dee-oh") was an online music streaming service that offered ad-supported free streaming and ad-free subscription streaming services in 85 countries. It was available as a website and via app for Android,

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy ...

, iOS, and

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design lan ...

mobile devices, which could stream music from Rdio's servers or download music for offline playback; there were also clients for the Roku and

Sonos SONOS, short for "silicon–oxide–nitride–oxide–silicon", more precisely, " polycrystalline silicon"—"silicon dioxide"—" silicon nitride"—"silicon dioxide"—"silicon", is a cross sectional structure of MOSFET (metal-oxide-semicondu ...

systems. The web-based service also offered a native desktop client application for

OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

and

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for se ...

, as well as a Windows Store application. Rdio's library had content from the four

major record labels A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produc ...

, as well as the Merlin Network and the aggregators BFM Digital, Catapult,

CD Baby CD Baby, Inc. is an online distributor of independent music. The company was described as an "anti-label" by its parent company's Chief Operating Officer Tracy Maddux. The CD Baby music store was shut down in March 2020 with a statement that " ...

, boomertunes, INgrooves, and The Orchard. Rdio also offered

social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods fo ...

ing features, such as the ability to share songs, albums, and playlists with others on Rdio and social networks such as

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. On November 16, 2015, Rdio filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

in which they had to pay $200 million and announced the sale of certain

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

to Pandora Radio. The purchase price was $75 million in cash.

History

Rdio was launched by

Skype Technologies Skype Technologies S.A.R.L (also known as Skype Software S.A.R.L, Skype Communications S.A.R.L, Skype Inc., and Skype Limited) is a Luxembourgish telecommunications company headquartered in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, whose chief business is th ...

founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis on August 3, 2010. At the time they had to compete with services such as Deezer, MOG,

Napster Napster was a peer-to-peer file sharing application. It originally launched on June 1, 1999, with an emphasis on digital audio file distribution. Audio songs shared on the service were typically encoded in the MP3 format. It was founded by Sha ...

, Rhapsody, and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active use ...

. On September 27, 2013, Rdio added a music recommendations feature that delivered personalized albums, stations, and playlists. On January 16, 2014 Rdio introduced some free streaming options, supported by audio advertisements. On November 16, 2015, Rdio filed for

, and reached a deal to sell certain assets and intellectual property to a competitor,

Pandora In Greek mythology, Pandora (Greek language, Greek: , derived from , ''pān'', i.e. "all" and , ''dōron'', i.e. "gift", thus "the all-endowed", "all-gifted" or "all-giving") was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions ...

, for $75 million, pending approval by the bankruptcy court. As part of this transition, the Rdio service was discontinued effective December 22, 2015, and some employees were transferred to Pandora, which planned to introduce an "expanded" experience incorporating this IP in late 2016.

Vdio

On April 2, 2013 Rdio launched Vdio, a movie and television show streaming service. Vdio was set up similarly to Rdio but adopted a pay-per-view model. The service focused on newly released titles from major Hollywood studios like Disney, Fox, Universal Studios, and Warner Bros. Current Rdio subscribers were given US$25 in credit to spend on Vdio. Vdio was shut down on December 27, 2013.

Critical reception

In 2013, ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular ...

'' compared a number of music services and judged Rdio the best, grading it "A" and writing that it had "by far the best app and online interface, making database searching and playlist curation easy".

Partnerships

Oi - On November 1, 2011, Rdio entered the Brazilian market by announcing a partnership with Oi, Brazil's largest telecommunications company, under the brand name Oi Rdio. Cumulus Media - On September 16, 2013, Cumulus Media announced a deal with Rdio that gave the second largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States an online outlet. This partnership gave Rdio broad access to its programming and promoted Rdio on Cumulus stations. Tesla Motors - On February 6, 2014, Tesla Motors’ CEO

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The B ...

announced Rdio would be integrated into its cars in Europe as the default dashboard audio service. Google Chromecast - On March 31, 2014,

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

announced a deal that made Rdio available on Chromecast in 12 countries. Jaguar Land Rover - In January 2015, Rdio announced a partnership with Jaguar Land Rover. The application went live on Jaguar LandRover's InControlApps Platform on July 3, 2015.

HEOS by Denon is a Japanese electronics company started in 1910 by Frederick Whitney Horn, an American entrepreneur. Denon produced the first cylinder audio media in Japan and players to play them. Decades later, Denon was involved in the early stages of d ...

- In July 2015, HEOS by Denon announced its new partnership with Rdio. Roku - Rdio is a special app button on the 'Roku 3' remote control, along with Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.

Acquisitions

On March 14, 2014, Rdio acquired Indian Music streaming service Dhingana, to push global expansion. On June 30, 2014, Rdio acquired the social music discovery service TastemakerX. The entire TastemakerX team joined Rdio with TastemakerX CEO Marc Ruxin becoming the new COO. On November 16, 2015, it was announced that Pandora Radio would acquire Rdio for $75 million in cash. Rdio ceased streaming music on December 22 the same year.

API

Launched in 2011, Rdio's API allowed developers to add music to a web or mobile application with the ability to search, access, and play all of the artists, songs, albums, playlists, and charts in Rdio's catalog.

References

External links

Rdio.com
(As at 8 April 2016, redirects to Pandora Music.) {{Music streaming services Music streaming services IOS software Android (operating system) software American music websites Online music database clients Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015 Internet properties established in 2010 Internet properties disestablished in 2015 2015 mergers and acquisitions