Rdio: Skype’s Founders Eye Another Hit in Online Music

Posted Wed, 10/14/2009 - 17:49 by Mashable

If the idea of yet another music streaming service sounds like yesterday’s news, think again. Although limited on details, Bloomberg is reporting that Rdio, a venture backed, music streaming subscription service for archiving, sharing, and listening online or via mobile phone, will be made available in early 2010. Sure the service itself sounds interesting, but perhaps the most melodious thing about Rdio (which we assume is Radio minus an “a”) is the sound of the names of the two men behind it: Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom. Friis and Zennstrom are best known for Skype, the ubiquitous VoIP service, which they co-founded and sold to eBay (who they’re now suing) for $2.6 billion in September 2005. They’re also behind the p2p file sharing service Kazaa and online video site Joost. The duo are set to take existing services like Spotify and Pandora head-on with Rdio, and told Bloomberg that they’re ready to shake up the existing status quo. Of course, they’re also anxious and prepared to put deals into place with music distributors to ensure that their service is the best music streaming offering, bar none. Friis told Bloomberg via email that, “We have watched many ad-supported music businesses come and go … We felt the time was right to revisit this space, this time with a compelling offering and a sustainable subscription model.” It sounds like Friis and Zennstrom have a pretty grandiose vision, but whether or not they can best existing players in the market remains to be seen. Image from on [phil h] Flickr Reviews: Flickr, Pandora, Skype, Spotify Tags: friis, music streaming, rdio, Skype, zennstrom

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