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

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

#161

Post by lenocinor »

tetraodonpuffer wrote: post #9

that is really unfortunate, I much prefer Rdio's web interface to Spotify's and for all the years I've been a subscriber it's been rock solid, on the other hand I do think I am likely not the typical user (100% on desktop, mostly listens to full albums rather than random songs, a lot of classical music, etc.) When Rdio shuts down I am really not sure where I will be able to go for a comparable experience, Spotify for…

Have you looked at Spotify's classical music selection lately? Doing a rough tally, my playlists have over 6,000 classical songs on them, so I listen to a lot of classical, and something like 98% of what I look for is on Spotify, from early stuff all the way through modern classical.

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

#162

Post by invisible »

rekoros wrote: post #151

I was one of Rdio's first employees (3rd) and have been a happy subscriber since Craig got billing to work. After FB employees got free Rdio, they gave Rdio employees free Rdio as well, but I kept paying—to retain the right to bitch. (I got a free account for my wife though.) My entire extended family have been paying for and swearing by Rdio for years. I was introduced to Erlang at Rdio (this shaped the future of my…

Speaking to the question you posed at the end: Having worked at Grooveshark I think Google Music is the obvious choice now that Rdio will soon be gone.

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

#163

Post by thespace12 »

jeremyrwelch wrote: post #116

Rdio made a mistake by trying to compete directly with Spotify. And Pandora is making a huge mistake by shutting down the service and losing a valuable niche group of users. Everyone I know who actually uses Rdio is DIE HARD (I see evidence of this in the comments too). The users I know are pro audio guys, musicians, programmers, artists, etc who use the app 6+ hours a day across desktop and mobile. Rdio could easily…

I love you rdio!!! Spotify sucks don't go!!!

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

#166

Post by trustfundbaby »

rekoros wrote: post #151

I was one of Rdio's first employees (3rd) and have been a happy subscriber since Craig got billing to work. After FB employees got free Rdio, they gave Rdio employees free Rdio as well, but I kept paying—to retain the right to bitch. (I got a free account for my wife though.) My entire extended family have been paying for and swearing by Rdio for years. I was introduced to Erlang at Rdio (this shaped the future of my…

> I realized that Rdio will never succeed due to lack of fanatical leadership—you can't have a company with absent founders, that's just not how it works—and left

Can you elaborate on this? How was the leadership absent? and why do you think that was?

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

#167

Post by welly »

cbr wrote: post #86
autarch wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes sense that there'd be free options for a genre like trance or other electronica that can be made by one person on a computer. However, if you enjoy music that features live instruments I just don't see how it could be free. There's too many people involved who need to eat.

> if you enjoy music that features live instruments I just > don't see how it could be free. There's too many people > involved who need to eat. One model people talk about is where recorded music is free, this boosts popularity, you fund the recordings through more people coming to your live shows. If you do 40 live shows a year, and giving away your music brings in 30 more people at each show paying $20 each, that'…

But not enough to eat. Certainly not for two, three or four (or more) members of a band.

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

#168

Post by austenallred »

qq66 wrote: post #141
caractacus wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your people in the know are wrong. The labels own a very small part of e.g. Spotify - around 5% - and the rest is VC and the founders. Deezer's IPO documents were clear on where the ownership of that service lies.

It's not that the labels own Spotify -- it's that by issuing limited-term licensing deals, and owning all of the music, they'll be able to charge whatever they want for their music, leaving just a little bit on the table to keep Spotify in business. Spotify reports $100m in profit? Just raise licensing fees by $90m at the next contract. Spotify won't have the leverage to walk away. Similar to Netflix, Spotify will ne…

For every $1,000 in music sold the artist gets average musician gets $23.40 https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100712/23482610186.shtml

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

#169

Post by thrownaway2424 »

samstave wrote: post #90

Pandora: Rags to riches poster child of SV: CEO cant make payroll; begs employees to stay and they do.... Pays $75,000,000 for assets of a competitor a few years later.

What did the employees get out of it?

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

#170

Post by ak217 »

archagon wrote: post #79
matart wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Spotify also has a native(-ish) OSX client (can you use Google Music outside the browser?) and excellent playlist drag/drop and sharing support. Plus, I love their iOS user interface. No other service has come close in either area. I just wish they had better local file support.

A couple of years ago Spotify rewrote their clients to use CEF (Chromium Embedded Framework), so since then their clients are in some sense native and in some sense not, and much more consistent across platforms.

Anyway, I agree with you that they have been pushing the envelope in terms of mobile functionality, especially iOS. Lately I'm not happy with how Android has crippled their lock screen experience by screwing up the lock screen widget API - but that's not Spotify's fault.

To any Spotify skeptics, I highly recommend trying the premium service. The social feed, cross-device sync, BPM matching for runners, collaborative playlists, Spotify Connect (ability to switch and control music playing on another device), Algoriddm Djay integration, all changed the way I experience music. Their radio/suggestions engine is not as good as Pandora's, but is slowly improving. The only thing that is sort of a letdown is the visualizations API, but I can see why it's not a priority.

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