A year after acquiring Dhingana, San Francisco based Rdio enters India

Rdio, a large licensed music services company has a catalog of over 32 million songs in 61 countries worldwide. The company had acquired Pune based startup Dhingana (and retained the team) last year and has now announced its launch in India. The new service, available on any device, features a catalog of over 32 million songs in 43 languages from global, regional and local labels. Rdio will be competing with the likes of Saavn, Gaana, Hungama and Wynk.

Rdio offers a programmed, free internet radio experience which can be upgraded to a full on-demand subscription service with access to any song, album, playlist or station, online or offline, without ads for $1.99 USD or 120 Rupees a month.

Anthony Bay, CEO of Rdio said, “India is the fastest growing Internet market in the world with one of the most vibrant cultures for music. We have built a strong local organization here, which is now our largest office and team outside the U.S. Our objective is to raise the bar for the digital music experience in India and provide the most robust offering of music from around the world, all tuned to each individual listener.”

Rdio’s application pulls music from a catalog of songs and a wide variety of station types, including algorithmically generated artist and genre-based stations, human-curated stations programmed to fit any mood or activity, personalized stations tuned to each individual listener, and stations based on tastemakers and labels. "Over the past seven years, my brother and I have dedicated our lives to bringing millions of users the diverse and wonderful music of India,” said Snehal Shinde, VP of Emerging Markets at Rdio (Co-founder of Dhingana)."Last year Rdio acquired Dhingana and we set out to marry our Indian expertise and experience with the best global music platform. We are proud now to introduce Rdio to India," he adds.

Strategic Partnerships in India:

• Shazam users can now connect their Rdio account to get the tracks they discover automatically added to Rdio playlists. Rdio users can also go beyond the preview, playing full tracks from Rdio right in Shazam.
• SoundHound also connects listeners directly with Rdio and enables discovered songs to be played back “in app” and also linked to a playlist in Rdio.
• Google Chromecast casts Rdio content to the TV’s from Rdio iOS, Android, and Web apps.
• Rdio provides interactive streaming music for all Volvos in India along with aftermarket car entertainment devices such as Pioneer AppRadioLive, and HARMAN Aha Radio.

Website: Rdio