Music streaming service Rdio has upgraded its app, providing new features that will tailor it into a very neat fit for each and every individual user. This despite the fact that the users are all over the place, in 60 different countries.
“We are in the very early days of the era of streaming music and there is a huge opportunity to bring this remarkable experience to people around the world,” said Anthony Bay, CEO of Rdio. “For the first time in history, it’s possible to have access to all of the world’s music through a single application – any time and anywhere – tuned to you. We’re focused on offering the world’s best music experience built around the listener. We now lead with a free stations experience combined with the ability to upgrade to a full on-demand subscription service that offers access to any song, album or playlist, and additional stations features. Internet radio and music subscription have traditionally been seen as two different options but we believe there are compelling reasons for them to go hand-in-hand as one.”
The new features include:
* Home — An evolving and constantly refreshing feed of personalized music stories that surfaces the best of Rdio in a single destination. Stories are built around the listener’s music preferences, recent activity from tastemakers and friends, recommendations from Rdio experts, and more.
* Favorites — Expanding listeners’ collections so they can keep track of everything they love, all in one place.
* Browse — Where Rdio’s new curated stations can be explored.
* Trending — See which stations, songs, albums, artists, or playlists are popular among all Rdio music lovers, or toggle to people you follow and make it more personal.
RBR-TVBR observation: Remember the old adage “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em?” We don’t believe that applies to internet audio, exactly, but we do believe in this adage: “Even if you can beat ‘em, join ‘em anyway!”
By this we mean use all the advantages of youR local presence, in particular your local boots on the ground, to defend you audience share. Provide excellent local features that no national internet service can.
At the same time, compete with them fiercely on their own turf. If they’re going to create intense format based audio sites, create your own intense format based audio sites. If they’re using algorithms, you use algorithms.
There’s a famous Winston Churchill speech about fighting them wherever they are – and that’s what we’re talking about!
In promoting its Rdio service, Cumulus has the right idea!
