Telecompaper

Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have created a new start-up called Rdio. With offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Rdio is focused on the market for streaming music services, the New York Times reports. Rdio is hoping to introduce a music subscription service by early next year that offers seamless access to music from both PCs and mobile phones. Drew Larner, Rdio's chief executive, said the company is in talks with the music labels on licensing content. Mark Piibe, the head of digital business development at the EMI music label, confirmed that talks were under way with Rdio and said there was no reluctance to deal with the two founders, despite their previous start-up Kazaa, a file-sharing platform. Other music streaming services expected to hit the US in coming months include Spotify, which offers free streaming with ads, and Mog, a blogging network which also has licensing deals with all four major music labels plus the digital distributors Orchard and Ioda. Mog expects to launch by Thanksgiving, offering unlimited PC streaming for USD 5 and mobile access for USD 12-15.