rara was a music

streaming media Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a Computer network, network for playback using a Media player (disambiguation), media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of Network packet, packets from a Server (computing), ...

service. It operated between December 2011 and March 2015. It offered ad-free, on-demand music streaming from a range of major and independent record labels, including

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

EMI Music EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), c ...

and

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment and record label Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "Record label#M ...

, global rights agency

Merlin The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Re ...

and independent digital distributors The Orchard, INgrooves Fontana, Believe Digital, IASand VidZone Digital Media. Launched in December 2011Music service Rara.com aims for digital non-adopters
BBC News 13 December 2011 by British company rara Media Group Limited, the service featured an initial music catalogue of approximately 10 million tracks.
Daily Telegraph 13 December 2011 As of October 2013, the catalogue offered 22 million tracks and was available in 32 countries.rara partners with Toshiba
Music Week 11 October 2013 The system was accessible on both PC and

Mac Mac or MAC may refer to: Common meanings * Mac (computer), a line of personal computers made by Apple Inc. * Mackintosh, a raincoat made of rubberized cloth * Mac, a prefix to surnames derived from Gaelic languages * McIntosh (apple), a Canadi ...

via the web with apps for Windows 8, iOS, and Android. A rara "web" subscription provided unlimited music streaming via the web to PC and Mac while a "premium" subscription enabled access to rara mobile apps as well as offline access to music.Australian music-streaming services compared
CNET 30 October 2012 In between February and March 2015, rara stopped accepting new subscribers and announced that the service was up for sale.Rara will be shut or sold as ceo Jez Bell exits
Music Business Worldwide on 13 March 2015Rara up for sale
CMU "Complete Music Update" on 16 February 2015 Music streaming stopped on 29 March.

Features

rara had a catalogue of over 22 million tracks licensed. It provided unlimited on-demand music streaming. Web users could create playlists which were synchronised through the cloud with their other rara devices. rara used a team to curate channels and playlists, categorised by mood, genre, era and currently trending. rara created personalised music recommendations that were both algorithmically generated and hand curated by rara's team. Powered by Dolby Pulse, rara streamed audio on web and via apps at a bitrate of 320 kbit/s.

Platforms

rara was available on web via PC and Mac and also via apps for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android and Windows 8 PCs and tablets. The rara web streaming service was launched on 13 December 2011. The rara Windows 8 app was introduced on 23 October 2012. It was the first on-demand music streaming app to launch on Windows 8 apart from Microsoft's own Xbox music service which was bundled with all Windows 8 devices. The rara iPhone app was introduced on 23 October 2012. The rara iPad app was launched on 23 October 2012. The rara Android app was launched on 13 December 2011. BMW ConnectedDrive Online Entertainment was first announced by BMW on 19 May 2013 for BMW 5 Series 2013 facelift models. The first compatible vehicles with Online Entertainment included became available to drive from late July 2013. On 6 December 2013 Online Entertainment with rara became available to purchase in all BMW Series 1-7, the M series and the X5 model.

Territories

rara was available in 32 countries: US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and South Africa. rara individually tailors its music service for every territory, with local language support and a localised music catalogue for each country.

Partnerships

rara was partnered with HP,

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

Toshiba is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors ...

and

Lenovo Lenovo Group Limited, trading as Lenovo ( , zh, c=联想, p=Liánxiǎng), is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, personal computers, software, servers, conv ...

and was preloaded onto a range of HP PCs and Lenovo Windows 8 and Android PCs, tablets and Windows 8 convertible devices.Rara.com Turns Up The Volume On Its Music Streaming: Launches Windows 8, iOS Apps; Inks Lenovo Deal; Now In 27 Markets
TechCrunch 23 October 2012

History

Located in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, rara was spun out of digital music service provider

Omnifone Omnifone was a UK-based company that was an independent provider of cloud-based unlimited music services to consumer electronics vendors, mobile carriers, Internet service providers and consumer brands including Research In Motion, RIM, Sony, ...

prior to launch in December 2011. The service was run by parent company rara Media Group Limited with its back end technology platform powered by Omnifone. The rara.com web streaming service and rara Android mobile app was launched on 13 December 2011 in 16 countries across the US, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, with 10 million tracks from all major labels and a global partnership with HP. On 14 December 2011 rara announced its launch in New Zealand. On 20 January 2012 rara announced its launch in Australia, Canada and Singapore. On 31 January 2012

PRS for Music PRS for Music Limited (formerly The MCPS-PRS Alliance Limited) is a British music copyright collective, made up of two collection societies: the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) and the Performing Right Society (PRS). It undertake ...

announced a pan-European licensing deal securing royalties from rara for the songwriters, composers and music publishers it represented across Europe. On 18 July 2012, rara appointed

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

executive Nick Massey as CEO. On 23 October 2012 rara launched apps for iOS and Windows 8 devices and announced music licensing deals with independent distributors Merlin, The Orchard, INgrooves Fontana, Believe Digital, VidZone Digital Media and an expanded global licensed catalogue to 18 million tracks. rara.com also announced it had added 7 new countries; Brazil, Mexico, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Africa and Portugal, increasing rara.com's territory reach to 27 markets. On 20 December 2012 rara announced a licensing deal with independent distributor IASand the addition of 6 new Eastern European countries;

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

, expanding its international territory reach to 33 countries worldwide. On 8 March 2013 rara announced Omnifone and

executive Jez Bell as CEO. On 21 May 2013 rara announced an international partnership with

to provide Europe's first in-car music streaming service. On 11 October 2013 rara announced a partnership with

to pre-load the rara app on Toshiba Windows 8 PCs, tablets and convertible devices in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. On 6 December 2013 rara expanded Europe's first in-car music streaming service across the BMW range. rara was available in BMW Series 1-7, the M Series and the X5.BMW extends in-car music streaming service Rara to full range
by Ishbel Macleod; at The Drum; published 6 December 2013 In early 2015, rara announced that the company was for sale and would shut down if a buyer was not found. Unlimited music streaming and premium shut down on 29 March in all 32 countries. In June to October, the official homepage still ran without the "sign up", "prices" or "social network" options. However, the page still had the "email" and "sign in" options. The website was finally shut down in November.

References