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Rdio Raises $17.5 Million during Financing Round

TMCnews Featured Article


February 04, 2011

Rdio Raises $17.5 Million during Financing Round

By Ed Silverstein, TMCnet Contributor


Rdio has raised $17.5 million during the latest financing round involving new and existing investors.

Mangrove Capital Partners took part in the round. The investors include Rdio co-founder, Janus Friis, through his investment entities, Atomico (News - Alert), and Skype, the company announced.


Rdio will use the money to expand to new platforms and regions during 2011.

Part of the money will be used to hire new employees, expand outreach to consumers, and develop new ways to bring social music to users.

In addition, Warner Bros. Records Chairman Rob Cavallo, a Grammy- nominated producer, who has worked with several prominent musicians such as Green Day, Dave Matthews Band and Alanis Morissette has joined the Rdio board.

Current board members include CEO of Europlay Capital Advisors, Mark Dyne; co-founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström of Atomico; and CEO Drew Larner.

“We are changing the way we find and listen to music. Anything and everything is instantly available from any computer and phone and easily shared with our friends. The days of expensive music downloads are coming to an end," Friis, said in a company press release.

Mark Tluszcz, co-founder and managing partner of Mangrove Capital Partners, added in the same release that, “Unlimited and on-demand digital music services are an exciting and explosive new market as the a la carte download model is ripe for innovation.”

Tluszcz is optimistic about Rdio’s future. “With its globally experienced co-founders, deep ties to record labels and the music industry, and unique social design, Rdio has the right combination of management experience and technology to make the company a global leader,” Tluszcz said.

Rdio says it is an unlimited, on-demand social music service from the founders of Skype. Subscribers listen to music on the web and mobile devices, anytime and anywhere they want.

“The convergence of many factors including the pervasiveness of smartphones, network robustness, and consumers accustomed to on-demand content make it an exciting time to lead a company like Rdio,” Larner said in a company statement.

Rdio features a catalogue of over 8 million songs. Rdio has relationships with four major recording labels (EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group (News - Alert) and Warner Music Group), and thousands of independent labels.

Rdio launched last August, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Rdio lets subscribers look at recommendations from friends with similar taste in music. In addition, Rdio recently collaborated with social media giant Facebook (News - Alert) so users can log in with Facebook IDs to check if friends are also on the music service, according to The Chronicle.

The newspaper contends in a report that Rdio “has a long way to go to catch up with Rhapsody, which recently passed 700,000 subscribers.”

Sprint (News - Alert) subscribers can now access Rhapsody’s on-demand digital music collection featuring an impressive 11 million songs, if they use the Rhapsody Android (News - Alert) app, being offered in Sprint Zone, according to TMCnet.


Ed Silverstein is a TMCnet contributor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jamie Epstein







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