Rdio now available in select Asian countires

Rdio, the online music subscription service, has finally made its way to the Asian markets. This news was confirmed through its blog, which stated that the service will now be available inseven new countries, viz. Malaysia, Hong Kong, Colombia, Chile, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Poland.

This expansion would mean that Rdio will now be available in 31 countries spread over five continents. Earlier, Rdio was available in US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil, where it works through a joint venture with a local mobile carrier Oi, while the service got a European foot-print through countries like Finland, Germany, UK and Netherlands. Apart from this, the uninterrupted music service is available in Australia and New Zealand also.

The ad-free service has a collection of more than 20 million songs spreading over various genres

Developed by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the creators of Skype, Rdio comes with a 6-month free subscription for new users, as the developers wish to promote their service in the new markets.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

Rdio, available for download on both the iOS and Android platforms, can be most useful for people who are addicted to music. The ad-free service has a collection of more than 20 million songs spreading over various genres and can be accessed readily on its platform. It also provides an option to queue up songs that one could listen to at a later point.

Another advantage of using Rdio would be that one will not be restricted to a single device. Using its Sync feature, the music service can be accessed on multiple devices through a single account. This would mean that one could use a single Rdio account on his laptop, desktop and also the music player.