Rdio adds free live radio stations to its streaming library
Apple Music has Beats1, and now Rdio has live radio, too. Rdio announced today that in addition to its library of 35 million songs and curated stations, it's tacking on live broadcast radio with access to "nearly 500 stations." You can browse the full list here, but for starters you can expect 93.9 The Beat in Indianapolis, 95.5 KLOS in LA, 95.5 NASH Icon in Nashville, NASH FM 94.7 in New York and KFOG in San Francisco thanks to Cumulus Radio. Westwood One is also chipping in, which means you'll be able to listen to 24/7 sports talk and game coverage of events like NCAA March Madness. What's more, there will be on-demand access to those talk shows (The Jim Rome Show, The Doug Gottlieb Show and others) in what we'd surmise is a podcast-like repository. You'll be able to stream your local favorites and stations broadcasting in other cities, too.
As you might expect, when you're listening to live radio, Rdio's features are still within reach for building your personal library. If a station is playing Punch Brother's "Movement and Location" for example, you can mark it as a favorite, share it, begin a station based on that tune or view more of the artist's music. If you're a paying customer, you can also download the song for unlimited listening later. However, you don't have to have a subscription to listen to the new live radio feature, though. Basically, Rdio is combining the current trend in music consumption (streaming) with the benefits of broadcast radio to bolster its own catalog of content. It's also a way for radio stations to gain back some of the listeners that may prefer streaming music while driving down the highway. Rdio says that more stations are on the way before the end of 2015 and folks outside of the US can expect live radio "in a number of international markets." Unfortunately, there's not mention of specific locales just yet.
