Announced within a press release earlier today, streaming music service Rdio is expanding beyond the United States to offer a promotional period of six months of free music streaming to fourteen countries located all around the world. Available in the United States for over a year, anyone interested in the music streaming service can sign up for an account without having to enter in payment information. Residents of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom can now listen to over eighteen million songs on the Rdio service for free.
Opposite from Pandora’s free service, the music is completely free of advertisements during the trial period. However, new users are limited to a specific number of plays each month. Similar to other music subscription services, users are able to create playlists, follow friends also using the service and share tracks or song lists to social media services like Facebook or Twitter.
In order to listen to the music, users will need to access the service through the Rdio Web portal or use one of the standalone desktop applications developed for Windows and Mac users.
After the promotional period comes to an end, users can decide if they want to subscribe to the Rdio service for a monthly fee. At the $5-a-month level, users can listen to an unlimited number of songs through the Web portal or desktop apps. At the $10-a-month level, users can listen to all their favorite music on their mobile devices like smartphones or tablets. Users also have access to Rdio on Sonos home music systems as well as Roku set-top boxes at that subscription level. In addition, Rdio offers an unlimited family plan in which users can get a discount on multiple subscriptions. For instance, two subscriptions cost $18 a month and three subscriptions cost approximately $23 a month under the family plan.
