Posts Tagged ‘Janus Friis’

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.”

Rdio, an on-demand social music service similar to Pandora, and Sonos, the makers of the Sonos Multi-Room Music System, have partnered to bring Rdio subscribers any artist, song or album from Rdio’s catalog, on demand, to multiple rooms of their homes. In other words, it’s safe to listen to music at home on normal speakers again, but with free reign of Rdio’s digital music selection, which includes 7 million songs from EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group , Warner Music Group and some indie labels. The company expects the service to launch later this quarter.

“By adding Rdio to Sonos, our subscribers can now easily extend their Rdio Unlimited experience to their homes,” said Drew Larner, CEO of Rdio in a statement. “For Sonos customers, we bring a new and unique social approach to music discovery and sharing. At home, online, or on the move, the Rdio experience can now be with you everywhere you go.”

The service is $9.99 per month for unlimited Sonos, Web and mobile access and $4.99 per month for Web only. The Sonos system is also reasonably priced, with options for listeners to either buy speakers or sync up their old ones, buy a remote control or download an app to use their iPhones or iPads to control the system, and a range of other accessories.

Rdio was founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, who also founded Skype, which they sold to eBay in 2005. They got their funding from the technology investment group Atomico. Sonos is a privately-held company that’s headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA with offices in Cambridge, MA, Hilversum, Netherlands, Shenzhen, China and Penang, Malaysia.