Rdio Announces Free Web And Desktop Streaming Music

Streaming music provider Rdio has announced free to use options for its web and desktop applications. The new free use program has been activated in all of the company’s regions except Germany and Brazil.

Rdio users in the following regions can take advantage of the company’s new free use options:

“U.S., U.K., Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.”

The service is also going ad-free in the hopes that it can attract users to a paid service after they have tried out the platform for a limited time.

Free users can take advantage of the Rdio platform for six months, during which time they are slowly pushed towards paid tier programs based on a users desire for web, desktop, and mobile apps use.

The new program includes a green bar at the top of the Rdio app, which shows free users how many songs they have remaining. If a user wants unlimited access, they must pay $4.99 for web and desktop apps and $9.99 for Rdio on mobile which includes offline listening.

If the company’s paid advertising sounds familiar, that’s because it is the same pricing tiers offered by Spotify.

Rdio’s desktop app is available for both Mac and PC users and it offers 18 million songs.

While Rdio has not provided user numbers, it is believed to hold a much smaller following than Spotify’s 20 million users and Deezer’s 26 million followers.

Will you give Rdio a try now that the platform will allow for free music streaming?