Live data from Hacker News

Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

techcrunch.com

41–50 of 266 posts

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#41
post #8

I've been told by people in the position to know that the 2010-era streaming services (Rdio, Spotify, Mog) were all effectively the same company: owned mostly by the music studios (in exchange for licenses) with a minority stake for each's particular founders/investors. As Dalton Caldwell cautioned in 2011, licensing costs make music startups are nigh impossible [1]. For people who are willing to pay for a music serv…

I really like spotify because I can use it on my phone, PS3, laptop, etc. My phone can be the remote to my sound system in another room.

I also have a small data plan on my phone so I do not stream music. Spotify allows me to download their songs for playing offline.

Does Google Music provide these or similar?

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#42

Interesting way to exit. Is that common?

That's the part that intrigued me. Chapter 11 means the original investors get the short end right? why would they agree to this acquisition? or do they get money back, and tax-payers cover the losses?

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#43

Bummer. I really like(liked?) Rdio. I've been a subscriber for several years -- the UI I find to be pretty good, but their mobile apps are garbage. So, who wants to write up an Rdio -> Spotify migration tool?

I was just looking at this one:

https://github.com/jacobian/rdio2spotify

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#44
post #41
post #8

I've been told by people in the position to know that the 2010-era streaming services (Rdio, Spotify, Mog) were all effectively the same company: owned mostly by the music studios (in exchange for licenses) with a minority stake for each's particular founders/investors. As Dalton Caldwell cautioned in 2011, licensing costs make music startups are nigh impossible [1]. For people who are willing to pay for a music serv…

I really like spotify because I can use it on my phone, PS3, laptop, etc. My phone can be the remote to my sound system in another room. I also have a small data plan on my phone so I do not stream music. Spotify allows me to download their songs for playing offline. Does Google Music provide these or similar?

[deleted]

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#45

As someone who switched to Rdio from Spotify because the former has not terrible music discovery, this is unfortunate. Looks like I'll be switching again...it would be nice to find a streaming service that was about music discovery rather than forcing the latest garbage down your throat. Although who knows, maybe Spotify's radio now plays more than 10 songs...

A shout out for 8tracks! I can search among human-curated playlists by themes/tags, and I often discover songs I like. 8tracks does the discovery part wonderfully for me. I mostly care more about the mood of the music rather than the exact songs, and that use-case is also served perfectly.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#46
post #24
post #8

I've been told by people in the position to know that the 2010-era streaming services (Rdio, Spotify, Mog) were all effectively the same company: owned mostly by the music studios (in exchange for licenses) with a minority stake for each's particular founders/investors. As Dalton Caldwell cautioned in 2011, licensing costs make music startups are nigh impossible [1]. For people who are willing to pay for a music serv…

I agree with you about Google Music. For those lucky enough to sign up early and get the $7.99 price, it is easily the best pay for streaming service out there.

Best is subjective. Google Music is definitely a great music store.

For those wanting a social music experience Spotify is the "best".

For those wanting curated music and a digital radio experience Apple Music is the "best".

For those wanting a hands off service Pandora is the "best".

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#47
post #41
post #8

I've been told by people in the position to know that the 2010-era streaming services (Rdio, Spotify, Mog) were all effectively the same company: owned mostly by the music studios (in exchange for licenses) with a minority stake for each's particular founders/investors. As Dalton Caldwell cautioned in 2011, licensing costs make music startups are nigh impossible [1]. For people who are willing to pay for a music serv…

I really like spotify because I can use it on my phone, PS3, laptop, etc. My phone can be the remote to my sound system in another room. I also have a small data plan on my phone so I do not stream music. Spotify allows me to download their songs for playing offline. Does Google Music provide these or similar?

(i also prefer spotify)

google music also allows you to remote stream music, as long as it has a chromecast plugged in (there's no support outside that afaik)

it also allows you to download music

you can use on your phone and laptop, but i don't think there's console support right now.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has an Apple Music app [1] on the Play Store for Android, and is accessible through iTunes (ugh...) on the desktop on both Windows and Mac. (No Linux support unless you can coax iTunes into running on Wine, and no web UI.) Apple Music's reasonably viable as long as you're only using it on mobile; its viability on the desktop really depends on your ability to tolerate iTunes. Suffice it to say that I remained a…

Wow, how long has an Android Apple Music app been available? I might have gone with Apple Music if I had known this a few months ago. With iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play music, it was a pain with duplicate music libraries. I went with Play Music (now gets ad-free youtube thrown in), but I might have made a different decision.

> Wow, how long has an Android Apple Music app been available?

6 days. and, for everyone's surprise, it's quite good. fast too.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#49
post #42

Interesting way to exit. Is that common?

That's the part that intrigued me. Chapter 11 means the original investors get the short end right? why would they agree to this acquisition? or do they get money back, and tax-payers cover the losses?

Shareholders get will nothing, but debt holders will still get paid in proportion of how much they're owed.

Re: Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75M, Rdio Files Ch.11, Will Shutter Service

#50
Music is a dying industry because there's too much good free music floating around. Look at labels like http://www.ektoplazm.com/ . The music is 100% free. There's not even a buy button anywhere. Long distance phone calls and music are a glimpse of our future where things are too cheap to meter. The dying industries are trying to find ways to create artificial scarcity to go back to the old way of doing things.
Post reply on HN