11 ms·
Rdio is Now Free on the Web
- locusm 13y agoSadly I had to drop Rdio for Google Music as the PiMusicBox couldnt support their flash only API. They dont provide a stream via API.
- MrAlmostWrong 13y agoI love Rdio. Bought my finacée, my brother, my mother, and my father subscriptions.
- jlas 13y agoMust be in response to Spotify's similar policy change: http://news.spotify.com/uk/2014/01/15/no-more-time-limits-on-spotify-freeyourmusic/ http://news.spotify.com/uk/2014/01/15/no-more-time-limits-on...
- glennos 13y agoSeems like it. If so, that was quick turnaround!
- kevincennis 13y agoI doubt it's purely a response. They mentioned that they're going to be inserting advertising into the streams now for free users, which isn't something you build out in a day. I'm sure they've been planning this for a while. Maybe the Spotify announcement forced them to announce and release it sooner than they were planning, though.
- jemeshsu 13y agoBoth are response to coming launch of Beats Music.
- TarpitCarnivore 13y agoThey cut a deal with Cumulus back in September to help make this possible. It's probably just coincidence, though they may have rushed it out the door after Spotify did the same. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/16/business/media/a-digital-deal-for-cumulus-and-rdio.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/16/business/media/a-digital-d...
- ddt 13y agoI can't possibly recommend Rdio enough. The design is simple and intuitive. State transfers nicely between devices. Even little things are pleasantly surprising. If I have my laptop hooked up to speakers at a party playing through Rdio, I can change the song from my phone. The only thing it doesn't have that I'd like is Grooveshark-esque queue building. Every music player could just lift Grooveshark's queueing system wholesale and everyone would be much happier.
- dominotw 13y agoI was a Rdio customer for over an year and I had to switch to spotify because of how bad the streaming on the iphone app was.
- onedev 13y agoWhat's wrong with it? I use it daily and haven't had the level of issues that you suggest.
- dominotw 13y agoa)one my major complaints was that the app never recovers from spotty connection. When network goes down music goes down which is expected ( kind of , why doesnt the app buffer music?) but when network comes back music never comes back. b) Non existent buffering: Please take a leaf from pandora's book and look at how fast their music streams under spotty(any) connection. I kept thinking 'hey they are new, they'll figure it out soon', but nothing after 2 years. c) App keeps crashing: i've had several incidents where app crashes and never recovers so i have to completely uninstall and reinstall the app ( and re download al the offline music). unacceptable. The app i have now on my phone crashes every time when it comes up( which was kind of the final straw)
- stdgy 13y agoI'd like to add that both their Android and iPhone apps are extremely impressive. Very well designed, and a joy to use. My only complaint with the service so far is that they haven't made adding gapless playback a priority.
- michaelmior 13y agoFree "in the US" on the Web. Too bad :(
- pikachu_is_cool 13y agoVPN.
- glennos 13y agoI don't envy the licence negotiations they must go through, but I'm always disappointed when these announcements are country limited. In their defence, I notice that the blog is name spaced as "US". Still, boo.
- sergiotapia 13y agoJust use MediaHint or Hola. Boom - open web again.
- motyar 13y agoThank you
- michaelmior 13y agoI assume that's probably against the ToS. If I have to break the law to access it, I don't consider it very open.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- nl 13y agoIt's completely unclear if that is actually against "the" law. I'm in Australia, where a parliamentary report encourages users to use technological means to bypass geographic restrictions[1]. If I use a service it is true I must agree to their terms of service. However, if I'm not in the jurisdiction those terms apply to it is unclear if they can be legally enforced. Additionally, it is also unclear if those ToS are broken at all by using an unblocking service. Typically the aim is to restrict serving music to any client outside the area the music license applies to, and music licensing companies understand completely that geographic restrictions can be bypassed. It is actually in the interest of the licensing company that you do bypass the block. Then they get paid for the stream. It isn't in the interest of the license holder in your jurisdiction that you bypass it, but in most jurisdictions they don't have grounds for a complaint: they can't actually make you use their service (especially if it doesn't exist). [1] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-29/geo-blocking-mps-committee-price-report-apple-adobe-microsoft/4850484 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-29/geo-blocking-mps-commi...
- tptacek 13y agoShould I be worried about Rdio? I am happy to pay Rdio a relative pittance for continued access to music. I'm less happy if they're in a tailspin that is going to destroy the quality of their catalog.
- stdgy 13y agoUnfortunately, worrying seems prudent. While I suspect this move had been planned for some time, it follows on the heels of a large layoff that decimated (triple-decimated, if the 30% number is to be believed) the company. http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/19/5123004/rdio-lays-off-employees-to-ensure-a-scalable-business-model http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/19/5123004/rdio-lays-off-emp... The music streaming business seems like an extraordinarily difficult place to compete.
- kisielk 13y agoThat may have to do with their cancellation of the Vdio service. I was a beta tester of the service but received an email last month that it was being cancelled.
- TarpitCarnivore 13y agoI think their exposure and catalog may grow because of the deal they cut with Cumulus. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/16/business/media/a-digital-deal-for-cumulus-and-rdio.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/16/business/media/a-digital-d...
- Dewie 13y agoI might buy their mid-tier plan and cancel my Spotify subscription. I was planning on downgrading my Spotify subscription, but it seems that their mid-tier plan (the one that cost half that of premium) is gone now.
- caipre 13y agoI think it's still available, just not advertised on the main page. When editing my subscription, the $4.99/month option was still there.
- Void_ 13y ago> anywhere there’s a computer In the US.
- jld 13y agoHow does the Rdio library compare to Spotify's?
- dorkrawk 13y agoSo what is going to happen to the $4.99/month "Web only" tier?
- aye 13y agoI'm wondering the same -- I had just switched from the $9.99 plan to the $4.99, because I only listen to Rdio on my computers (at home or work). Maybe I'll start streaming vinyl over MPD, or some fool thing.
- perryh2 13y agoI'm on the "Web only" plan. The free tier will have ads.
- pstack 13y agoThat's his point - what is happening to that subscription level? The RDIO post only says "we now have that service, but ad supported and if you don't want that, you can pay $10 for our unlimited service". So what is happening to the $5/mo service that is the same as the now-ad-supported service, but without the ads? I listen to an average of less than one song per day and only need it on my desktop, laptop, ipad, etc -- so there is no way I'm paying $10/mo for what used to be $5 and if I wanted to listen to ads, I'd just turn on terrestrial radio.
- computerbob 13y agoI am also on the $4.99/month plan. From what I can see is that for people already on the plan it stays the same. The article reads that if you are subscriped to a plan you will not be moved. I assume they will keep the $5 because the only difference is no ads vs the free version.
- xordon 13y agoOnly Free in the US. I find it super annoying when companies don't realize that the internet IS global.
- baddox 13y agoMost likely, the companies that make this decision are the publishers.
- toomuchtodo 13y agoThis is correct. At my current place of employment, we have to deal with music licensing issues from various catalog providers. I mean this with no hyperbole, it is insanity dealing with music rights.
- ireadzalot 13y agoJust subscribed!
- paul9290 13y agocan I play and control audio in sync across all my devices with rdio? Is that a feature they offer yet?
- gol706 13y agoPlay no, control yes. It's still pretty cool at a party to hook up my laptop to my speakers, and be able to walk around and queue up songs from my phone.
- founder4fun 13y agoStrange none of the big players are offering play & control audio in sync. There are a few native (seedio, tunemob) and web apps (speakerblast) that offer this already.
- Xeroday 13y agoIn terms of sound quality, Rdio streams at 192 kbps and Spotify Free at 160 kbps.
- pstack 13y agoActually, RDIO has never been forthright about what quality they stream in. From their customer support in their knowledge-base: -------- "We're not currently providing specific bitrate or codec information. We experiment with different rates and encoding formats in an effort to provide the best possible listening and user-experience, and stream CD-quality audio over the web and wifi (for mobile devices), and only stream a lower bitrate if you’re on a 3G connection. We realize that is not be as much detail as you’d like, and we apologize for this — if you have feedback about Rdio’s sound quality as you're listening, please do let us know." --------
- Xeroday 13y agoLooking at network flows from rdio servers reveals that the mp3 chunks are actually 192 kbps.
- brackin 13y agoOkay but Spotify premium streams at 320kbps all ogg vorbis.
- lozf 13y agoThat's bitrate, which doesn't necessarily correlate to "sound quality". Vorbis at 160 kbps usually sounds better than MP3 at 192 kbps.
- prezjordan 13y agoRdio, please release your streaming quality figures. I'll return as a customer, I promise - please just be more transparent about this sort of thing. The reason I say this is because the quality is noticeably worse than Spotify, and I feel they won't release the numbers because they know they can't compete. I just want some transparency. The UI and experience is beautiful, but the quality is lacking.
- FireBeyond 13y agoLast I read (which was this morning actually), it was noted that Spotify’s “low/regular” quality is 192kbps, and high is 320, and Rdio is at 192.
- torbit 13y agoI switched mostly from Rdio to Spotify. I used rdio since it started, but spotify's radio based off a playlist is great. I get more discovery songs this way. I also have non-english songs that aren't on rdio, but I can add them in Spotify. I do love rdio's new album page better.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jonheller 13y agoSadly, just left Rdio after two years because of the sound quality. I do miss the interface, though I actually find Spotify's a bit faster.
- aristus 13y ago...with really annoying ads played at 150% gain.
- nettletea 13y agoLike the TV then. Weirdly the ITV player in the UK has completely pathetic sound on the adverts that you can hardly hear, which makes them a little more bearable.
- collinvandyck76 13y agoI love rdio, but what is up with the lack of gapless playback? I love continuous albums, and even for the lack of being able to play these without the annoying silences between tracks I still prefer rdio, but this is the biggest issue I have right now with the service.
- unicornporn 13y agoI can only listen to 30 seconds of the songs. I have not logged in to Rdio for over a year, so it couldn't be the monthly limit still being in effect. Anybody else experience this?
- nettletea 13y agoIf you read the homepage, it suggests free accounts get access for 6 months.
- BadassFractal 13y agoWhat's the difference between this and Spotify?
- nettletea 13y agoSpotify desktop app Linux uses about 11% of my CPU, Rdio / Chrome uses a shade over 30%. (Having said that the Spotify app's windowing is a bit ugly and glitchy for me. I think it's a Qt app and I mainly have GTK apps.)
- MattBearman 13y agoHaving been a Spotify premium subscriber for over 2 years, I've just decided to switch to Rdio for one simple reason - Collections. I've been wishing Spotify had this functionality for as long as I've been using it. Time to call it a day and go else where for my music. Also the spotify iPhone app is shit, but I haven't used Rdio's enough yet to compare.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jamesmoss 13y agoSpotify is about to roll out Collections. Searching for spotify:app:collection in the desktop client enables it for some people, although it didn't for me.
- dan1234 13y agoIt's free on the Web… in the US. With my UK account, I get "You're out of free music. Subscribe now for unlimited music."
- malvim 13y agoWent there in a rush, only to find out that "starting today Rdio is free IN THE US on the web" (emphasis mine). Bummer.
- nettletea 13y agoJust signed up. A couple of weird issues, I was presented with people to follow. I had no idea who these people were, and wondered what it meant to follow them. I managed to skip that step. Then I couldn't find a search box to find any artists or songs to play. It was buried down the bottom left of the page. I then typed in an artist, then clicked on an album, and got some music. Then the UI flipped, with a nice big search on top. Took me a while to find out what a free, unsubscribed account was. The design is really washed out. Very lightweight grey fonts that are very difficult to read. It's all a bit white and bright. Stylbot for Chrome helps a little there as there aren't any user settings to change the colour scheme. Oh some mystery meat navigation, click on the bottom bar to bring up the current playlist. Actually you have to do quite a bit of click experimentation, to find out what the icons do. Would be nice to have some hover tips. Oh and you can scroll the playlist, it's not at all obvious! Gripes aside, quite nice. Will see how I get on with it.
- jamesmoss 13y agoI really want to love Rdio. I switched from Spotify 8 months ago and at first it was a breathe of fresh air but I soon started noticing issues with the desktop client. It's just a UIWebView that loads the web app. Album artwork loads slowly if you've got a large collection, UI interactions are unresponsive and will often time out. The other major issue is having albums in your collection become unplayable due to what looks like licensing issues, only to reappear months later as the same album, except not in your collection. Spotify doesn't seem to have this issue.
- FireBeyond 13y agoI used to notice the album licensing issue, but it seems to be resolved now (perhaps it's a flag now, rather than a deletion).
- kraag22 13y agoUS only. Great :(
- circa 13y agoI love being able to click on an actual Record Label name and seeing what they have released lately. That is huge for me.
- e12e 13y agoMight want to add "the U.S. web" to title...
- GotNothing 13y agoHaving the ability to listen to music from one source is important to many and Rdio has no "Local File" support. This is necessary for artists/albums Rdio doesn't have in it's library and it's a reason myself and many others won't ever make the jump from Spotify.