Rdio Fires Shot In Potential Price War For Music Streamers

Rdio is offering a cheaper version of its monthly streaming music subscription Wednesday, a couple of steps ahead of the pending launch of Apple Music.

"We've all been flying airplanes that had business class only," Anthony Bay, Rdio's chief executive told Buzzfeed. "There is no coach."

Rdio, one of the world's largest licensed music services, had until now provided premium subscriptions for $9.99, in line with some of its competitors.

Apple Inc. AAPL is expected to unveil its latest streaming music service on June 8 at its annual developer conference in San Francisco.

The Apple service is expected to include social networking elements that some have compared to Apple's earlier Ping service shut down in 2012.

See Also: Apple Might Be Creating A Social Network Within Its Streaming Service

But the market is growing increasingly tight for music streamers.

Major players at last count included Apple's iTunes Radio, iHeartRadio, LastFM, Google Inc GOOGL's Songza, Pandora Media Inc P Spotify, Slacker and other companies in the traditional broadcast and internet radio market.

Many, including Rdio, offer free services supported by advertising.

Rdio's new, cheaper service is to be offered for $0.94 per month in India, a country where Internet use expected to quintuple by 2020, according to TechCrunch.