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.

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