Universal Music Group (UMG) Expands Digster.fm With Rdio, Putting Music Discovery at the Forefront

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing to redefine the online music experience across a variety of services and platforms, Universal Music Group Distribution (UMGD), a division of Universal Music Group, the world’s leading music company, has expanded Digster.fm (http://www.digster.fm) to now include Rdio, the on-demand social music discovery service from the creators of Skype. The announcement was made today by Jim Urie, President & CEO of UMGD, Mitch Rotter, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Product Development of the company, and Drew Larner, CEO of Rdio.

Digster.fm, UMG’s dynamic fan-facing music playlist service, was launched in beta in July, supporting Spotify’s U.S. subscription service. With the addition of Rdio, Digster.fm will now publish playlists across a wide variety of musical genres and artists which fans can listen to through the service. All of the content is chosen by UMGD employees and uses music from all record companies offered within the Rdio service, not just UMG. Digster’s playlists are curated exclusively by UMG, regularly updated, and available to all Rdio's users.

“Rdio’s innovation and recognition as a leader in social music makes it a perfect fit for Digster,” stated Mr. Rotter. “As more consumers migrate towards subscription services for their online and mobile music experiences, one of the biggest challenges is what to listen to. Digster.fm surfaces numerous playlists curated by in-house editors, artists and taste makers, which makes it easy for fans to listen to and discover content outside of their own music libraries. We plan to incorporate as many additional services and features as possible in order to provide fans an unparalleled playlisting service through Digster.fm.”

"We're thrilled that Rdio has been integrated into the Digster site," said Drew Larner, Rdio CEO. "Now, with Digster's curated playlists, Rdio users have another way to listen to and discover new music, while Digster users have access to Rdio's catalog of over 12 million songs. This combination of Rdio, a service built from the ground up with social music discovery in mind, and Digster is a great example of how developers can utilize our API to bring popular Rdio features, such as playlists and sharing, to their users."

About Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group is the world's leading music company with wholly owned record operations or licensees in 77 territories. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, the industry's leading global music publishing operation.

Universal Music Group's record labels include A&M/Octone, Decca, Def Jam Recordings, Deutsche Grammophon, Disa, Emarcy, Fonovisa, Geffen Records, Interscope Records, Island Records, Lost Highway Records, Machete Music, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Mercury Records, Polydor Records, Motown, Universal Music Latino, Universal Republic and Verve Music Group as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalog of music in the industry, which includes the last 100 years of the world's most popular artists and their recordings. UMG's catalog is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and Universal Strategic Marketing (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group also includes Global Digital Business, its new media and technologies division; Bravado, its merchandising company; and Twenty-First Artists, its full service management division.

Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi, a global media and communications company.

About Rdio

Rdio is the ground-breaking digital music service that is reinventing the way people discover, listen to, and share music. With on-demand access to over 12 million songs, Rdio connects people with music and makes it easy to search for and instantly play any song, album, artist or playlist without ever hearing a single ad. Discover what friends, people with similar tastes, recording artists and more are listening to in real-time and share across Twitter and Facebook. Build a digital music collection that’s available everywhere - on the web, in-home or in-car, on an iPad or smartphone, and even offline.

Launched in August 2010, Rdio is headquartered in San Francisco and was founded by Janus Friis, one of the creators of Skype. Currently available in the US and Canada, Rdio is funded by Atomico, Janus Friis through his investment entities, Skype and Mangrove Capital Partners. For more information and to sign up, visit www.rdio.com.

SOURCE Universal Music Group