Why iTunes and the Rest of the Gang Should Fear Rdio
It’s only occasionally that I get beta invites from friends to check out the ”newest” music web service. Rdio, which launched on 6/3 somehow got to my email, so I gave it a spin. The social music service syncs your music through a web and mobile app, so yeah – seems pretty cool. That, and their massive library lets you access pretty much anything you’ve ever wanted to listen to. The old Notwist album I haven’t heard in years? Yeah, they got that. How about that Nas song that taught me all those dirty words? Yeah, Rdio has it.
So here’s the breakdown. First, you sync up your Rdio account (currently still in Beta) with your iTunes and the service cross references your music against their library then puts them in a collection. You can sort by artist in your full Rdio collection and make playlists to single out the favorites. Sounds pretty standard iTunes, but if you think about it, iTunes as a music player has pretty much looked and worked the same for the past 6+ years. You’re probably tired of looking at it actually – all those lines and grids and…ugh. Sure you know how to use it well, but that’s because it’s always looked that way. It may not be the best way to sort, sync, or hell – is it even cost effective anymore to buy an album off iTunes? What if you could have the catalog of iTunes, check out your friends listening habits, make playlists with them and spend less money on music every month?
It’s a subscription service, and yes, I frown at the idea of ”subscriptions” because they remind me of a paper route I had when I was 14 years old. But since it costs less than last nights happy hour, why aren’t you subscribing to a monthly music service? The whole thing is $10 a month, and you can quit whenever you want. The tenner gets you unlimited web and mobile access and syncs your collection seamlessly with your mobile device. With the added bonus of connecting with your friends, checking out their listening habits in real time and building collaborative playlists, Rdio is offering up something the current online music services have yet to.
Oh, and one last thing I really have to point out – Rdio’s way of leveraging their service. They have built in a feature that lets the user download songs, and puts the price tag right there by the albums. A standard $7.99 for a download of the album so what, you can proudly show it off to your friends in your new iPhone? Or, how about you subscribe to an endless supply of music that you can access on your mobile device, sync with your computer, make playlists with friends and pay just $10 a month. Music is about to get cheap guys. Real cheap. Thanks Rdio. Watch out iTunes.