Skype Founders Unveil Rdio Music Site to Earn Digital Revenue
Skype Technologies SA founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have started a new music streaming website called Rdio for U.S. and Canadian users.
Rdio offers a catalog of 7 million tracks that users can access via a smartphone or computer for $9.99 a month, it said in a statement today. The service was opened for public access today and competes with existing music streaming sites, including Rhapsody, MOG and Grooveshark. Web-only access without the option of listening offline costs $4.99 a month.
Rdio offers music from the world’s four major labels, EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, as well as several independent music aggregators, it said in the statement.
As global music sales have slumped 30 percent since 2004, and illegal downloads of music account for almost all songs heard online, record labels are throwing their weight behind streaming services as a new revenue stream.
Merlin, the fifth-largest record label, which represents independent music, said Rdio started service without finalizing a deal with the group.
“We are surprised that a service, whose success would seem dependent on offering its consumers a comprehensive choice of repertoire, would launch without giving those consumers access to the leading global independent labels we represent, and their artists,” Merlin Chief Executive Officer Charles Caldas said in a statement today.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kristen Schweizer in London at kschweizer1@bloomberg.net.
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