Rdio allows users to sample 30 seconds of a song.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Embattled Indian company Dhingana, which provides online music streaming to customers but closed down last month, has now been acquired by US-based company Rdio.
When it shut down in February, Dhingana was the third most popular music streaming service in all of India, with heavyweights Saavn and Gaana topping it in terms of total customers, but Hungama trailing. By acquiring the company, Rdio will get to tap into Dhingana’s sizeable customer base in India, in addition to expanding into a marketplace it currently has not yet tapped.
Rdio operates in 35 countries around the world, providing ad-based, free music streaming and a subscription service that gets rid of the advertisements for a fee. Internet radio is quickly becoming one of the most popular, and therefore lucrative, enterprises on the Internet, with companies like Pandora cleaning up here in the US. The purchase will also give Rdio access to Indian music labels like T-Series and Tips.
Dhingana’s catalog of music includes over one million songs in 42 languages. Founded in 2007, the company had over 15 million active users in May of 2012, and had apps on both the iOS, Android, and other popular platforms to facilitate its streaming services for mobile platforms. It shut down on February 14 for reasons that were never officially confirmed, but were speculated to be due to problems dealing with the red tape of Indian record labels and declining revenue.
In announcing the Dhingana acquisition, Rdio CEO Anthony Bay said, “India is a tremendously vibrant market for music and culture and one of the largest and most important in the world. We are one of very few global companies that can provide a great music experience to an expanding international audience. It is our objective to bring that experience to India and to non-resident Indians and fans around the world.”
Rdio was created in 2010, and has platforms on Windows, Blackberry, Nokia, and Apple devices, as well as Roku and Sonos. It is a subscription-based service that allows users to only sample 30 seconds of a song without paying. It has an immense catalog of over 20 million songs, however, and is one of the fastest growing online music streaming services in the world.