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Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

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Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#21
post #14
post #8

Rdio. Music Streaming service. Not sure what happened after they closed up shop but the UI was beautiful and they had great performance.

I really miss Rdio! Just disagree on the performance a bit. The UI was fluid, but their network performance would take a hit from how their API had been designed: every action on the app would trigger a large JSON payload download (and sometimes upload). It definitely felt nicer than Spotify.

I was sad when I had to switch to Spotify. Rdio was clean. Even today I don't understand Spotify.

Rdio also had an amazing recommendation engine from Echo Nest. Even though that company got bought by Spotify it took them a long time after the acquisition before they had decent recommendations.

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#23
post #8

Rdio. Music Streaming service. Not sure what happened after they closed up shop but the UI was beautiful and they had great performance.

Venture backed, took a big bet on Vdio that the market didn't care for, probably couldn't meet growth goals compared to their burn.
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