Android App of the Day: Rdio
For most of us, listening to music on a mobile device has simply become the primary way to enjoy your favorite tracks. If you’re in the market for a paid subscription music app, then you’re probably on the fence between Spotify and Rdio. Most people who I have talked to seem to be evenly split on their opinions about both services. While both apps are good with playlists, library selection, and functionality, neither one is entirely perfect. I’ve used both and can now say that after Rdio for Android received its much-needed UI overhaul, my vote goes to Rdio. Rdio has an extremely well designed UI now with an excellent music discovery feature that I personally enjoy over Spotify. So, if you don’t mind paying $9.99 a month to enjoy unlimited music without those pesky ads then continue reading to learn more about Rdio.
Pros:
- Access to more than 15 million songs in Rdio library
- New albums added every week
- Carry your collection in your pocket
- Sync and play music when you’re offline
- Build unlimited playlists
- Search every single song, album, artist, playlist or user on Rdio
- Home screen design gives one-click access to key features in the app
- Supports Android Ice Cream Sandwich’s new remote control client to manage playback controls on the lock screen, including viewing controls and album art
- Well designed UI with quick access to core features through app’s dashboard
Cons:
- Only a 7 day free trial, otherwise you will only hear 30 second previews
- Playlist takes a long time to load
- Playback stalls sporadically
How it works:
- Download the Rdio app
- Create a new account with your email address
- Open welcome email and follow steps to register your Rdio account online
- Sign into your mobile device with email address and password
- Dashboard provides quick access to the app’s core features including: music collection, playlists, queue, heavy rotations, activity, history, new releases, top charts, recommended
- To add music to your collection, search for music, add it to your collection using the + button
- Search for a playlist or create one by finding a song and starting a new playlist
- Queue up music by adding songs to your queue via Rdio on the web
- See what albums are being played the most by tapping the heavy rotation feature
- Activity displays a feed of what the people in your network are listening too
- History shows all of the albums and tracks that you have recently played
- See what music has been released this week, last week, or two weeks ago under the New Releases feature
- Look up albums, artists, songs, or playlists under the Top Charts feature
- Discover new music under the app’s Recommended feature
Conclusion:
Now that the Rdio app for Android is up to par with its iOS counterpart, I can safely recommend this app to anyone looking for a robust music subscription service. Rdio has an extensive music library and gives you all of the necessary tools to search, discover, and create custom playlists tweaked to your own personal taste. The developers have paid special attention to the dashboard’s feature set making it my favorite way to see what new songs have been recently released, what’s on heavy rotation, and stay on top of what my friends are listening to. If you’re still on the fence, then download the app and enjoy their 7 day free trial, you’re bound to fall in love before the trial is over.
Rdio is available for free in the Google Play Store. Android requirements vary with device. Play Link
This is part of our Android App of the Day series. We take our favorite app for Android for each day and post it here for you to check out. Feel free to check out all of our App of the Day posts here.
Hi Amy. Thanks for the review. The android tablet version is nowhere the ios version. The Android tablet app is just the Android phone app but, well…bigger. Its leaves much to be desired actually. No artwork in collections or playlists collection. The artwork that does render in a list is microscopic. No network info available about your followers. i have used both tablet versions and comparing the two is like comparing iTunes to iTunes without a style sheet. its like someone copied the ios version to clipboard then pasted it as “text only” as the Android tablet version. Not even close.