Skype Founders To Challenge Spotify, iTunes With Rdio Music Service

In a move aimed at tapping into the lucrative online music market, Skype’s founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom has come up with a new music service called Rdio which will be based on a subscription model.

Besides Skype, the two serial entrepreneurs have invested in a number of other companies including Kazaa and Joost and their move to enter the highly competitive online music domain is being keen watched by technology enthusiasts.

Explaining the rationale behind going for a subscription model for Rdio, Janus Friis told Bloomberg that “We have watched many ad-supported music businesses come and go and we felt the time was right to revisit this space, this time with a compelling offering and a sustainable subscription model."

Some analysts believe that new service is likely to compete with leading music service provider Spotify head on and it is likely to allow users to share and archive music tracks besides allowing them to stream music.

It is important to note that the move by Skype’s founders to roll out Rdio comes close on the heels of Joost’s UK arm going into liquidation and experts are already raising serious doubts about the viability of the video on demand service.

With Rdio, one can hope that Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom will leave behind the setback of Joost and create another success story like Skype.