Remember Kazaa? The guys who worked on that have been building something really cool: Rdio, pronounced “R-dee-o”. It’s got a lot of hype, but I am starting to validate it.
It’s a social music streaming service, with desktop and mobile environments. You pay $5 a month to get access to a lot of music. If you have a song in your iTunes, then it’s in your “collection” on Rdio, once you sync the two.
I’m also sharing this with my friends, so they can see what I’m listening to at any time. It’s fun to see what your friends are listening to. It takes Last.fm to another level.
Rdio’s desktop app is really compact and stays in sync with the website. If you pause your song, you can reboot your computer or close your browser, and it will remember your place.
You can collaborate on playlists with friends.
There is a cool visualization to see what you have been listening to most in your collection.
I can see myself using this all day at work. Especially when all of my friends join and add their music.
For $10 a month, you can sync music to your mobile device, which could be very nice.
Some downsides are that not all songs are available. I guess it has to do with licensing deals in the states. They do have some pretty big content partners already though.
You can link Facebook and Twitter accounts, but they haven’t activated any of the sharing or “liking” capabilities. Last.fm scroblling is on though.
Rdio is in private beta right now, but I have a handful of invites. Send me an email or a tweet and I will try to hook you up!
The Rdio team is 20 strong right now, so these guys are building something that could definitely compete with Spotify when it launches in the US.
