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Business News Digital
Rdio and Tidal expand into new markets
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 23 January 2015
So, how many new markets did you launch in yesterday? Well? Because I can tell you this for a fact, Tidal launched in five and Rdio in 24. I bet you feel like you wasted your Thursday now, don’t you?
Though technically CMU is already available in every country in the world, which is nearly as many as Deezer, so I’m not feeling guilty about spending yesterday mainly updating the text on the 404 pages of our various websites. It was an important job that someone had to do, and only I was gallant enough to accept the task in hand.
Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yes, some streaming services launched in some new countries. As they are wont to do these days.
Rdio went live in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Fiji, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos and Vanuatu. The streaming platform is now available in 85 countries in total.
The firm also announced an alliance with mobile network Digicel in these and some other territories. “Digicel and Rdio will collaborate closely to infuse the streaming service with local influence”, says the press release. And who wouldn’t be excited about the prospect of a phone company and a streaming firm collaborating in close proximity and then sharing their collective infusions? Not not me for starters.
As for Tidal, the high quality audio spin-off of Nordic streaming service Wimp, rebranded for the UK and US markets so to sound less, well, wimpish, it has expanded into Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, like a tidal soundwave of high quality musical goodness crashing into the beaches of European appreciation.
And that marketing waffle is all mine, because Tidal CEO Andy Chen gave a tediously sensible statement confirming the latest expansion, remarking: “All these markets, as the rest of the world, are seeing a strong increase in music streaming subscription, as well as a high interest for high quality audio. We have already seen substantial interest from these markets signing up to our waiting list – with Netherlands as the front runner – and we are very excited to open up to five new markets today”.
