Kazaa Creators Launch New Music Subscription Service

The folks behind popular file-sharing program Kazaa are launching a new music subscription service called Rdio. From the sounds of things, it’ll be similar to existing subscription services. but with a social element:

Rdio is betting in part on its social elements – the ability to follow friends on the site, see what they are listening to and see a list of the most popular music among people you know.

Beyond that feature, Rdio doesn’t seem to be bringing anything terribly new to the table:

Rdio will charge $US5 to $US10 a month for unlimited access to a large music catalog, including songs from the major record labels. [...]Rdio customers paying the full amount will be able to stream and store songs on a range of mobile devices, beginning with the BlackBerry and iPhone, and soon, phones running the Android operating system from Google.

Worth the monthly fee? [NYT]

Photo by Jim Wilson/NYT