Rdio and Nova dissolve joint venture

Rdio has taken back 100% ownership of its local entity and has plans to expand.

Nova Entertainment, owned by Lachlan Murdoch, entered the partnership with the streaming service in 2012 with Rdio’s San Francisco-based owners Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström. Rdio’s Sydney staff set up camp at Nova's HQ in Pyrmont.

Rdio's global CEO Anthony Bay was in the country last week and during an interview with AFR, told the publication Rdio had ended the joint venture amicably before Christmas.

"Australia is one of our top five markets and we basically felt it made more sense for us to have more independence and direct control of the relationship here,” Bay told AFR. “So it was amicable but that particular structure wasn't really optimal."

Nova's CEO Cathy O'Connor told AFR that Nova is reprioritising its investments.

Now based in Surry Hills, Rdio is prepping an expansion of its local staff. The service just hired Luke Woods (ex-Communications Manager at ARIA) who joins the Rdio Australia Marketing team, and are currently looking for a Business Development Director.

Rdio have also hinted at a deepening of its partnership with promoter juggernaut Live Nation; the team-up was announced mid-2013 and so far has seen Rdio power audio streaming at LiveNation.com.

Speaking to TMN last week, Rdio’s President of International Scott Bagby said Rdio plans to expand to 100 countries by the end of 2015. The service announced its expansion to 24 new countries last month, taking its total to 85 countries and making it the largest streaming service in the world in terms of territory dominance.

:: Q&A - Rdio’s President of International, Scott Bagby