“Today, some bad news from competitor Rdio, the music streaming service startup from Skype co-founder Janus Friis. The company has confirmed to TechCrunch that it is laying people off,” Ingrid Lunden reports for TechCrunch. “‘Rdio confirmed making across-the-board workforce reductions today to improve its cost structure and ensure a scalable business model for the long-term,’ a spokesperson said today.”
“The company did not offer any further specifics on the layoffs. One person who first alerted us to them alleges that they affect 35 people. We have had other tips that say this works out to between one-fifth and one-third of the workforce, with significant cuts in engineering,” Lunden reports. “Iit’s notable that the company has not released any user numbers in a while.”
Read more in the full article here.
“No one has officially pointed the finger at Apple’s new iTunes Radio service as the reason for Rdio’s woes,” Bryan M. Wolfe reports for App Advice. “Still, its entry almost certainly hasn’t helped.”
“Apple doesn’t charge for iTunes Radio, regardless of the platform,” Wolfe reports. “By contrast, the only way to listen to music through Rdio on an iPhone/iPod touch and iPad is to pay $9.99 per month.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
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Apple’s iTunes Radio is broken: Here’s how to fix it in a weekend – November 11, 2013
Pandora loses nearly 2 million active listeners following Apple’s iTunes Radio debut – November 5, 2013
Pandora founder: Impact of Apple’s iTunes Radio ‘will be modest on Pandora’ – September 24, 2013
At this pace, iTunes Radio beats Pandora in less than a month – September 24, 2013
Pandora drops as much as 12% on Apple’s iTunes Radio competition – September 23, 2013
Apple releases iTunes 11.1 with iTunes Radio – September 18, 2013
Anticipating customer surprise, Apple begins training support staff on iOS 7 and iTunes Radio – August 29, 2013
Pandora would be wise not to write-off Apple’s potent iTunes Radio – August 26, 2013
Apple’s iTunes Radio to debut in September with McDonald’s, Nissan, P&G, Pepsi sponsorships – August 21, 2013
Apple’s new iTunes Radio is designed to be the largest streaming radio service – July 13, 2013
Apple announces iTunes Radio – launches this fall – June 10, 2013
I have never heard of this service before seeing this article. They can blame Apple if they want but maybe the truth is they were an unknown fish in a big sea.
This makes me sad, as a long-time Rdio user. Their model allows on-demand streaming of full albums and playlists rather than the “shuffle” style of Pandora and iTunes Radio. It’s a separate product in the same market, and it would be a shame to see it go.
What’s wrong with Spotify? I’ve been using it for two years now, and I love it.
Never heard of them either.
However, the FREE vs charge holds. Microsoft offered FREE Internet Explorer to kill off Netscape and now Apple is giving FREE iOS, OS X, Numbers, Page, … to kill off Microsoft’s cash flow.
Did you see the 2 gaming controllers that hold the iOS 7 devices? Air Play the iOS devise to the AppleTV and you next kill off Sony and Microsoft’s gaming cash flow and when you leave the house with your mobile gaming assembly you see the beauty in the new gaming choice you made with Apple!
iRoadKill every where and know one see it yet!
Airplay and ATV have too much delay to compete with $400 dedicated game machines. There are many games that could be great with airplay but not many that serious gamers want. 3D gaming is pretty big on those devices as well. that is not a market Apple needs to get into, not much profit there.
Rdio is known and has been around for awhile, but I think their pricing model is simply not going to work with Pandora ad-free being $3.99/month and iTunes Radio free with iTunes Match $20/year subscription.
JUST CURIOUS:
I purchased iTunes Match so I would never have to listen to iTunes Radio commercials – but they still show up. Anybody else had this 1st world problem?
I’ve never heard an ad and I have iTunes Match. Be sure whatever device you’re using to listen to iTunes Radio with is signed into your iTunes Match iCloud account and has iTunes Match turned on.
Same here. Never hear ads. I was a Match subscriber before iTunes Radio came along though. Maybe it’s an issue switching from free to pay.
Write a bug at bugreport.apple.com. Though the followups say they can’t reproduce it.. Maybe it’s somehow something specific to your setup.
Well, if YOU’VE never heard of them, then clearly, they are a failure.
Unfortunately, Pandora and iTunes Radio are preference-based radio stations, not on-demand music services that let you play and download virtually unlimited music. So your analogy is worthless.