Creators of Kazaa, Skype Plan Subscription Music Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 14, 2009 - 9:28am.

Los Angeles - The creators of peer-to-peer technology firms including file-sharing service Kazaa, Internet phone service Skype and video service Joost have announced plans to develop a new subscription-based music service called Rdio, The New York Times reports. Details on the new venture were sparse, but Zennstrom and Friis have established offices for Rdio in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and hope to offer Rdio online and to mobile devices by early next year.

It's unclear whether the service will utilize the pair's expertise in peer-to-peer technology.

Rdio will compete with similar services such as Rhapsody, Napster and Spotify, the latter of which is gearing up for its U.S. launch.

EMI head of digital business development Mark Piibe told The Times that the label is in talks with Rdio, and that there "was no reluctance to deal with" Kazaa creators Zennstrom and Friis.

http://www.rdio.com