My buddy Mike introduced me to Rdio, a beta music subscription service that recently launched. I have to say, after playing around with it the last few days, I am hooked!
Rdio is web based, but it also has a desktop and mobile component. The web site is the main interface, as far as I can tell, to the service. You can search artists, songs and albums and add it to your personal collection, or create playlists. Playlists are private unless you enable sharing with the rest of the Rdio world. You can even collaborate with friends on a playlist if you so desire. Rdio also uses the Twitter like followers feature. If your friends are on Rdio, you can see what they are listening to and subscribe to their playlists.
The desktop app allows you to import your albums, artists, and song information from iTunes and Windows Media Player and add that information into your Rdio collection. The idea is you can then stream the same songs from the cloud you have in your music collection without having to upload the entire file. Rdio’s desktop app, which runs on Adobe Air, is only useful currently to just stream your queued music from the web site and to gather your iTunes/WMP information.
The iPhone app is where Rdio shines. All the playlists, collections, and queued music can be set to be synchronized with their mobile app. This allows you to take music from the cloud and play it offline on your iPhone. I have removed most of my iTunes music from my iPhone and have started using the Rdio iPhone app to sync music I want to listen too. I can selectively sync between the cloud and the iPhone, and even turn off syncing to save batteries, and to play music offline and not eat away at my 3G data bucket.
This mobile feature alone is worth the price of admission. And yes, there is a subscription cost. Currently under the beta, its $9.95/month for the basic Rdio service and access to the mobile apps. For $4.95/month, you get the basic Rdio web site access and desktop player. I had previously dropped Zune Pass, and I am going to be subscribing to Rdio. The forums are very active with Rdio staff, and they are pretty quick to respond to issues or feature requests. Check them out at rdio.com.
