The following is guest contributed post by Deidre Bakker-Riches, owner of a boutique marketing firm and consultancy, Twlv31 Marketing, and the Head of Communications for Las Vegas advertising agency, Up All Day Creative Solutions (originally published by Mobile Leaders Alliance).
With the variety of online music streaming services that are available today, it is inevitable that some companies will eventually see their demise — which is unfortunately the case for our favorite personal streaming jukebox, Rdio.
Founded in August 2010 by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstroem, co-creators of Skype, Rdio allowed users to play virtually any song, album, playlist or station from a catalog of more than 35 million songs in 86 countries. Though, it looks as if the extensive competition took a toll on Rdio’s bottom-line, as the company is filing for bankruptcy according to an article published on GeekWire. However, this news may end up being favorable for all the Pandora fans out there.
On November 16, Pandora, the world’s most powerful music discovery platform founded in 2000, announced in a press release that there is a $75 million agreement in place to acquire “several key assets” from Rdio subject to certain conditions.
The transaction is contingent upon Rdio seeking protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California. Once the bankruptcy filing has been finalized, Rdio will be winding down its service in all of its markets. Although Pandora will not be acquiring the operating business of Rdio, it will attain Rdio’s technology and talent to accelerate its own business strategy. In addition, many members of Rdio’s team will be offered roles with Pandora, subject to close of the agreement.
Brian McAndrews, the Chief Executive Officer at Pandora said the company is building the definitive source for fans to discover and celebrate music, wherever and however they want to hear it… and Pandora intends to be their go-to destination.
“We are defining the next chapter of Pandora’s growth story,” said McAndrews. “Adding live music experiences through Ticketfly was a transformative step. Adding Rdio’s impressive technology and talented people will fast-track new dimensions and enhancements to our service. I couldn’t be more optimistic about Pandora’s future and the future of music.”
Anthony Bay, the Chief Executive Officer of Rdio added that he is pleased that many members of the Rdio team will continue to shape the future of streaming music, applying their tradition of great design and innovative engineering on an even larger stage with Pandora.
Currently, Pandora plays music selections from a library of over 1.5 million songs based on the user’s artist or genre selection. The user can provide positive or negative feedback for songs chosen by the service, which are taken into account when Pandora selects future songs for that user.
With this transaction, Pandora said the company expects to offer an expanded Pandora listening experience by late 2016, pending its ability to obtain proper licenses. This purchase could also help Pandora expand into other countries. Presently, its service is only available in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, but according to BloombergBusiness, Pandora is looking to expand to the U.K. as a gateway into the European market.
