San Francisco-based Rdio landed on the music streaming scene in 2010 and has since been steadily building its user base.
The Spotify and Pandora rival announced Monday it’d rolled out its service to seven new countries – Mexico, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, and Austria – bringing its country count to 24. This marks Rdio’s second big international push in its short history, with the startup taking its six-months-for-free option beyond the US for the first time in January this year.
New users can enjoy its ad-free web service at no cost for a period of six months, after which time a subscription must be purchased, with monthly plans starting at around $5. Rdio also said it would be extending the free web-streaming offer to members in Brazil, its third biggest market and fastest growing territory in terms of new sign-ups.
In a release announcing the international expansion, Rdio CEO Drew Larner claimed his service was the best for discovering music, and promised to continue improving the user experience by developing smarter tools to find new artists and tracks.
“By opening the social circle to seven new international markets, we’re making Rdio an increasingly global way to play, discover, and share music,” Larner said in the release.
The service offers 18 million tracks that can be listened to via its app – the iOS version of which received an update on Monday – or on the web. For mobile users keen to try the app, a free two-week trial is offered. As with other music streaming services, users can create and collaborate on playlists as well as share tracks or song lists via Facebook and Twitter.
News of Rdio’s push into new markets came at the same time as a report surfaced suggesting rival Spotify could be about to ink a deal with major record labels which would see it take its free ad-supported mobile streaming service beyond the US.
Though Rdio has never given details regarding the number of users forking out for its paid service, its ongoing expansion is a clear sign that things are heading in the right direction for the business. However, it’s far from plain sailing for all companies in the space. Pandora announced recently it was introducing a 40-hour limit on free mobile listening, after which it would charge a fee. It put the change down to rising royalty costs.
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