Who didn’t see this coming? Though Rdio initially denied it, the company will be breaking from its current deal with The Echo Nest, the recommendation engine that powers the streaming music service’s infinite playing Stations feature.
Rdio CEO, Anthony Bay, dismissed the loss, saying the company has multiple sources for its data. He said there are only three companies offering streaming music globally: Spotify, Deezer and Rdio, and he doesn’t see the loss of The Echo Nest as destructive to the company’s business model.
He said that smartphones are becoming the de facto listening platform, and streaming music is a huge component of that. Due to that overwhelming number of tracks, recommendations and algorithmic play have become an increasingly important part of the streaming experience.
Spotify isn’t forcing its competitors to leave The Echo Nest, but the updated terms and conditions state that all partners, including Rdio, must share listening data with its competitors. “As far as we are concerned, they were a good partner, but we have other good partners and we’ll move on. We, probably like most people, have multiple sources of data that we use. So we will stop using that source of data and use other sources.”
No word on what will happen to the current features powered by The Echo Nest, but Rdio assures its users that any transition to a new provider will be seamless.
According to CNBC, Canada is Rdio’s second biggest market after the US, followed by Brazil in third.
[source]CNBC[/source]
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