For this to work in the face of stiff competition from Mog, Spotify, Rhapsody, and rdio it must:

• Not just run on Winphone 7, but also Android and iOS
• Have a strong playlist generation feature
• Have fully featured mobile clients that do more than the competition’s
• Have a very large library of music
• Have an open API so other’s can build apps and uses for it

If this just comes out for Xbox and Winphones it may be very good, but it will remain a niche product.

Follow the link for initial details from Digital Trends.

I hope this isn’t right. Rather than re-inventing the wheel they’d be much better off just partnering with an existing service and getting them to support Beats audio, which *supposedly* has an API for other applications to take advantage of.

Click the title link to see the original story in the L.A. Times.

Gizmodo seems to really like the new rdio Android app!  Follow the link to check out the story.

Interesting comparison of rdio and Spotify catalogs in the US…

The desktop version of Spotify (especially the new one with app integration) is fantastic for music discovery. Unfortunately their mobile clients lag far behind.

This excellent looking app for iOS adds in EchoNest-powered radio and playlist generation features to fill in that gap.  Readers of this blog know my love for all things EchoNest, so if you’re the fortunate iOS-based user of Spotify, get this now!!!

I wonder if/when it’ll be out for Android? 

Cricket and it’s “Muve” music service is not discussed much, but they are neck and neck with Spotify for number of US subscribers. Only Rhapsody definitely exceeds it in # of US subscribers.  (Roughly 1 million according to this article.)

In any case, it looks like a bargain way to get cell plus music as a service. A bit too “bargain-y” for me, but if you’re on a budget it may be a good way to go. 

I’ve always thought Echo Nest-powered playlist generation was the best around.  It was used in the late lamented Thumbplay, and Mog uses it to power their excellent “radio” feature.  

Spotify has smartly chosen to use it for the latest revamp of their own “Radio” feature, and I think it’s a great move. (And bad news for Mog, although Mog’s implementation still seems a bit more flexible.)

Interesting comparison of (US) music library selection based on the favorites of the rateyourmusic.com community. Surprisingly rdio seems to come out ahead. Click the title for details.

Yet another streaming music service vying for your money.  Follow the title link for more details.  This one seems to be emphasizing “simplicity”, which always makes me a bit nervous.  (It usually translates to “fewer features to confuse you”, which means a less capable service.)

On the other hand, it has a 3-month trial for .99 cents a month, so may be worth a shot.

UPDATE: When I went to check the rara.com site it said “coming soon”.  I’m not sure if that means it will launch later today, or if the US is not one of those countries it’s launching in.  I’ll update again once I figure that out. 

UPDATE 2: The site is up and available now. And, the .99 per month is streaming only, the special deal is $1.99 per month for the first 3 months if you want mobile access.  Worth checking out at least: http://www.rara.com