Rdio’s rumoured free radio service is now real: from today, it’s offering free, personalised radio to non-paying users on iOS and Android. Time to get listenin’.
The new service, called Stations, will be available in the United States, Canada and Australia. In the past, users who had reached the end of Rdio’s 14-day free trial and decided not to pay were left with an app that didn’t do anything. Now, they can listen to an unlimited number of artist, album, genre and track-based stations, as well as You FM — Rdio’s personalised station, based on the individual’s tastes.
The new service is pretty similar to the one offered by Spotify since 2012, itself modelled vaguely on Pandora. Spotify has grown since that introduction, so presumably Rdio hopes it can, too, with the free service hopefully driving the pay-for scheme. The complete Rdio experience — with on-demand listening and offline storage — continues to cost $12.90 a month in Australia. [The Verge]