Jonesing for a Taylor Swift fix? Although you won’t find her albums on Spotify any more, all of the singer’s pre-1989 albums are streaming online through its number one competitor Rdio.
A few days ago, Swift had a rather public and messy breakup with Spotify, saying that she didn’t think the service fairly valued the effort that she, her songwriters, and other artists put into their music:
I’m not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music…
Be that as it may, her album catalogue still remains streaming through Spotify’s biggest competitor Rdio — both on the on-demand streaming service, which allows for offline downloads and listening of individual songs, albums or playlists, and Rdio’s curated streaming internet radio station.
Here’s Rdio’s own completely-not-boasting-about-it take on the situation:
Rdio Unlimited subscribers can hear Taylor’s songs anywhere, anytime they want. For those of you who haven’t yet upgraded, listen to her artist station as part of our ad-supported radio experience.
Although on the face of it Rdio doesn’t seem to have a hugely different distribution model to Spotify — for the end user, the experience is nearly identical, as I found when I switched away from Rdio to Spotify earlier this year — there’s something about it that’s clearly more attractive to Ms. Swift. [Rdio]