14 DAY TRIAL // The music streaming market is enjoying somewhat of a resurgence in the US after several services closed down last year. But others came to fill their place, notably only paid subscription services, and now one of the newest competitors, Rdio, is opening its doors to everyone, everyone in the US and Canada with at least $5 per month to spare, anyway. Rdio has been available on an invite-only basis for the past couple of months, but now anyone can sign-up for a free trial.
The startup hasn’t made the announcement yet, but it is expected to come later today. Eager users will be able to sign up for the service and use it for free for a few days to get a taste for it. It’s a fairly standard but comprehensive offering. Rdio has deals with all four major labels and a lot of companies representing indie labels. In total, Rdio boasts a catalog of more than seven million tracks, easily on par with any other music streaming service out there.
Pricing wise, Rdio is also a standard offering, the basic web-based service is available for $4.99 per month. If you want to take your music with you, the premium version will set you back $9.99 a month. This includes access to the mobile apps, for iPhone, Android and BackBerry, and also offline playback. The pricing and feature structure is quickly becoming standard among this type of services.
Rdio comes from serial entrepreneurs Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the people behind Kazaa, Skype and Joost. Its most obvious competitor is MOG, also a relatively young service. On paper, the two services are identical so it’s up to the small features and the overall experience to make the difference. Another possible competitor is Spotify, but the launch of the European streaming service has been delayed several times in the US. Of course, the biggest threat is yet to come, both Apple and Google are rumored to be working on music streaming services.