Posts Tagged ‘Drew Larner’

The on-demand social music service Rdio has raised $17.5 million from Mangrove Capital Partners and existing investors Rdio co-founder, Janus Friis, through his investment entities, as well as Atomico and Skype.

Rdio has been on our radar since they worked with the Recording Academy on a mobile app for the GRAMMY Awards. To strengthen its ties to the music industry, the company has now added to its board Warner Bros. Records chairman Rob Cavallo, a Grammy-nominated producer who has worked with artists like Green Day, Dave Matthews Band and Alanis Morissette. Existing board members include Europlay Capital Advisors CEO Mark Dyne, Atomico co-founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, and Rdio CEO Drew Larner.

With this recent round of funding, Rdio plans to take the service to new platforms and new regions throughout the year. Most recently, the company partnered with Sonos to bring music to home speakers. “The convergence of many factors, including the pervasiveness of smartphones, network robustness, and consumers accustomed to on-demand content make it an exciting time to lead a company like Rdio,” said Drew Larner, Rdio CEO in a statement. “It says a lot that notable investors share our vision.”

The 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards will air on February 13th at 8PM ET/PT on CBS, with or without Kanye West. As part of the “Music is Life is Music” ad campaign, The Recording Academy has partnered with on-demand social music service Rdio on MusicMapper, a location-based application for iPhone and Android.

Users can pick a location, tag a song and write a note to create an audio autobiography that’s pinpointed on a searchable map. Rdio supplies the album art and 30-second song excerpts, as well as powering the music search functionality.

“The Recording Academy is proud to provide music fans with content from Rdio’s vast catalogue through our MusicMapper application and Music Is Life Is Music microsite,” said Evan Greene, CMO, The Recording Academy in a statement. “Rdio proved to be a great partner in this year’s GRAMMY campaign given their like-minded emphasis on the social and mobile music experience, and we’re grateful for their partnership and collaboration.”

Drew Larner, CEO of Rdio added, “it’s extremely validating to have a prestigious organization like The Recording Academy ask Rdio to partner with them on powering the content in their social music discovery application. We have always believed that music is about sharing experiences and we’re glad that industry leaders recognize Rdio as a leader in social music discovery.”