Just one day after Microsoft announced 18,000 job cuts and the elimination of several Nokia smartphone projects, Nokia’s homegrown music streaming app, MixRadio, told the Guardian that it will be a spin off business. MixRadio is breaking up with the band, AKA Microsoft, and going solo. As such, it could be available on iOS and Android soon.
MixRadio’s CEO Jyrki Rosenberg told the publication that the music-streaming service will still come preloaded on all Windows Phone handsets, but it also plans to branch out to other operating systems in the near future.
MixRadio debuted back in 2011. Unlike Spotify and other music-streaming apps, it doesn’t give you the option to make your own, but rather packages tracks for you in interesting playlists. Just like with Pandora, you can skip tracks you don’t like and search for playlists based on your favorite artists. The more you listen and interact with the app, the better it learns your preferences and recommends mixes you may actually like.
The basic version of MixRadio is free to download and has no ads, which is a major bonus. Most other music-streaming apps bombard you with ads unless you subscribe to their premium service. That said, Nokia does offer MixRadio+, the premium version, which lets you listen to higher quality music files, skip as many tracks as you want, save playlists to hear offline, and play tracks on its website. It costs about $7 a month, which is cheaper than Spotify Premium, which costs $10 a month.
Although Rosenberg didn’t explicitly state that MixRadio will come to iOS and Android soon, the implication was clear. It looks like Pandora, Spotify, Rhapsody, and other music-streaming service might get some new competition.