Cür looks to upend Spotify, Pandora with $3 per month streaming

All three companies have literally bought into the service, taking advantage of equity options presented by Cür to purchase a combined total of $1.37 million in Cür Media INC.

An ad-free streaming service, the octopus-themed company offers users a mixture of on-demand and internet radio-style playback. But the big thing that sets Cür apart is its cheaper-than-normal subscription tiers. Cür offers its ‘Octo’ tier for $3 per month, and its “Inked” tier for $7, with the higher-priced tier including offline playback options.

“Start with a library of over 10 million tracks as a blend of internet radio and on-demand streaming. Add a super cool interface with a universe of sharing, curating and social tools built in,” reads the short excerpt on the company’s site, in front of an iTunes-esq photo of a bearded man in over-ear headphones. The service also offers a main homepage that allows each user to switch out up to 8 songs at will per day, according to Music Ally, adding a dash of on-demand streaming to go along with playlist and radio-style options.

Cür is the most modern iteration of Internet radio company Raditaz, which started in 2012 in Connecticut. Since discontinuing that brand, the company raised $9.6 million in private equity in the fall of 2014, and has been working on major licensing deals — and raising more money — since. With those deals now signed, and the big boys having bought in, the company looks poised and ready for a mid-year launch.

On the surface, Cür looks to be more of a music-based social media network and radio service than a standalone streaming music company like Spotify or Apple Music. That said, it will be interesting to see what features the company introduces to the public when it launches in the U.S. later this year — especially with the benefit of such big-money backing.