Rdio and Nova dissolve joint venture
Rdio has taken back 100% ownership of its local entity and has plans to expand.
Nova Entertainment, owned by Lachlan Murdoch, entered the partnership with the streaming service in 2012 with Rdio’s San Francisco-based owners Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström. Rdio’s Sydney staff setup camp at Nova's HQ in Pyrmont.
Rdio's global CEO Anthony Bay was in the country last week and during an interview withAFR, told the publication Rdio had ended the joint venture amicably before Christmas.
"Australia is one of our top five markets and we basically felt it made more sense for us to have more independence and direct control of the relationship here,” Bay toldAFR. “So it was amicable but that particular structure wasn't really optimal."
Nova's CEO Cathy O'Connor toldAFRthat Nova is reprioritising its investments.
Now based in Surry Hills, Rdio is prepping an expansion of its local staff. The service just hired Luke Woods (ex-Communications Manager atARIA) whojoins the Rdio Australia Marketing team, andare currently looking for a Business Development Director.
Rdio have also hinted at a deepening of itspartnership with promoter juggernaut Live Nation;the team-up was announced mid-2013 and so far has seen Rdio power audio streaming at LiveNation.com.
Speaking toTMNlast week, Rdio’s President of International Scott Bagbysaid Rdio plans to expand to 100 countries by the end of 2015. The service announced its expansion to 24 new countries last month, takingits total to 85 countries and making it the largest streaming service in the world in terms of territory dominance.