For anyone who doesn’t want to spend $9.99 a month for commercial-free streaming music, Rdio has the right plan for you.
Rdio announced a $3.99/month service called Rdio Select. Obviously, the “select” part is the reason why you pay less. You can only pick 25 songs to download to listen to offline and you can only change the 25-song roster once a day.
Still, you do get to listen to your own Rdio stations without skip limits or commercials on the mobile app and desktop. You will also be able to use Rdio on Roku, Chromecast and other set-top devices. Rdio Select subscribers will also be able to listen to music in high-quality at 320 kps.
There will also be 10-track playlists curated by artists, including one by Mumford & Sons.
“We’re excited to reach a new group of price sensitive music subscribers with Rdio Select and have designed the service to appeal to a wide audience,” Rdio CEO Anthony Bay said in a statement. “Rdio Select joins our free tier of ad-supported Internet radio and our premium Rdio Unlimited package. We remain committed to offering customized streaming options tuned to different listening audiences that includes the free listening experience. We believe in a free tier that is fair to artists, labels, and consumers alike.”
You can already subscribe to the service here and you get a 60-day free trial.
It would be interesting to get the record labels’ take on this service. After all, they reportedly balked when Apple suggested lowering the price of a monthly Beats subscription to $7.99. However, Rdio is still offering its $9.99/month service, so that probably helped get their support.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com