Listening to Music with Your Head in the Cloud
This is part 1 of a multi-part series about successfully integrating cloud-based services into your daily life and what it will take to advance these platforms beyond their current offerings. Round one deals with the entry of Rdio (www.rdio.com) into subscription based music services.
Full disclosure: I don’t work for these guys; I just think what they are doing is awesome.
We are starting to see major shifts in how we consume music since the proliferation of the MP3. The idea of media ownership is now shifting from owning individual files to leasing media on a when-I-need-it basis. Several services have been experimenting with this subscription based media leasing model and the all-stars at Rdio are proving that there is merit to rethinking how we enjoy our music.
Game Changer
Rdio has completely changed the way I consume music. Take a second and think about how you listen to your music now. Do you use Pandora? How about iTunes and iTunes sharing? You could be transfering your audio library from home to work via an iPod, iPhone or mobile hard drive everyday. I was mixing up all three of these methods before I discovered Rdio. This made for such a less than ideal music listening experience. Now, imagine having access to your entire (or almost entire) music library accessible from any computer, iPod Touch or iPhone in any location. Sounds pretty great, right?
Rdio is a social and cloud-based music service that gives you access to over 7 million songs for $9.99 a month. Built into Rdio are social toolsets that allow you to discover, share and enjoy new music from any computer or certain mobile devices. The method for discovery of new music alone drew me to Rdio but the seamless ability to match your current iTunes library collection and wireless mobile syncing sealed the deal for me.
How They’re Doing Mobile
“With Rdio’s mobile apps, music on your computer and mobile phone is finally connected without needing a cable. Collections and playlists are instantly updated and you can sync music and listen, even when you’re offline.” - Rdio.com
The first time you hit the “Sync to Mobile” button on Rdio you will be sold. If you have an Amazon Kindle then you are used to this type of interaction with books. Once the button is pressed, viola, the audio files are transferred directly to your mobile device. This gives you access to the music even when you don’t have an internet or mobile connection (perfect for the subway or in cities where 3G is spotty). All of this is done without the user purchasing the tracks or albums.
(A quick example of syncing an album to your iPhone)
Social’s So in Right Now
Easy-to-use sharing and recommendations are at the heart of Rdio. Previously, I had toyed with Lala.com (Rest in Peace and please do something great with this service Apple) and their sharing functionality left a lot to be desired. Rdio has streamlined the sharing process to effortlessly get users to share the tunes they love.
I can share music directly on friends’ Facebook walls, send them tunes via an Rdio message or tweet out my love for an artist, track or playlist. Playlists also have a collaborative mode that allows multiple users to create, edit and maintain playlists.
What’s Missing?
Rdio has leapfrogged over other subscription based music services in terms of having an intuitive interface, sharing functionality and seamless mobile syncing. That said, there are several areas of improvement and most fall under feature requests or small user experience suggestions.
Removing Artists from my Collection
I have way too many embarrassing artists that made their way into my Rdio collection when I matched my iTunes library. I need a one click solution for removing artists from the collection’s interface.
Randomly Playing Music from My Collection
The beauty of amassing a 10,000+ track library of music (puny compared to many) is being able to shuffle and bounce around through my eclectic collection. Currently, I can only randomize albums, artists or artist radio stations. I’d like the ability to randomize songs from all of the artists and albums in my collection so I can discover and re-discover music I have been collecting for years. This functionality should be both mobile and desktop.
Expand Upon the Desktop Application
The disconnect between only using the desktop app as an audio controller(Previous/Next/Play/Pause) and the web app as a queue management tool is a bit frustrating. A unified experience would ease my life considerably (I know, first world problems here).
We Need More Artists
Rdio is constantly adding new artists every single day, but to fully recognize the power of this platform Rdio’s library will have to include more minor and ‘underground’ artists. A tool for artists without representation to upload their music could solve this issue. Rdio could institute a profit sharing program for these artists that would incentivize them to share their music on the service.
Round-up
- $9.99/month unlimited access to over 7 million songs ($4.99/month if you don’t want mobile sync)
- Wireless sync to mobile devices (BlackBerry, iPhone/iPod touch, Android)
- Powerful social sharing tools
- Relevant recommendation engine
- Slick user interface
- Amazing customer support (via @rdio on Twitter)
- The Smiths
Owning music files is going the way of the CD. The cost and convenience of cloud-based services like this present a model that is much more compelling than the stagnate system of pay-per-track and pay-per-album. The future is looking bright for cloud-based media delivery platforms thanks to what the smart people at Rdio are doing today. Head over to http://rdio.com and give their free 3-day trial a run. You won’t be disappointed.
