Introducing: Free Access to Rdio
Some of the best things in life are free, and starting today, Rdio is one of them. New Rdio users in the US can take advantage of many of our popular features for free, including streaming full songs without hearing a single ad — a meter at the top …
Context & Ripple Effects
Rdio spent 2011 broadening where its service could run before touching what it cost: a full-featured Mac desktop app arrived in March, and by August the company had beaten both Spotify and MOG to an official iPad app. With distribution surfaces in place, the October move attacks the other half of the funnel — price.
Free access for new US users keeps the product's signature intact (full songs, no ads) while a usage meter caps the experience, making the free tier a trial rather than a replacement for subscriptions. It matters because Rdio's closest rivals were still selling access on subscription terms alone.
First-order effects
- New US users get ad-free full-song streaming at zero cost up to a metered limit, removing the payment barrier that previously stood between every listener and the catalog.
Second-order effects
- Spotify and MOG — the rivals Rdio outmaneuvered on the iPad app in August 2011 — face pressure to answer with their own free entry points or concede the low-friction trial ground.
Third-order effects
- If metered freemium spreads across the category, competition shifts from catalog breadth to conversion-funnel design, with the free-to-paid handoff becoming each service's central product decision.
The trend: Music streaming is moving from subscription-only access toward metered freemium tiers as the default user-acquisition mechanism.