Rdio To Begin Paying Musicians $10 “Bounty” For Each New Subscriber

Back in May, music
subscription service Rdio began working on a plan to compensate artists for
bringing new subscribers to their service, looking to dispel any notion that
streaming services do not operate in the best interest of artists. It looks
like the plan has turned now tuned into action. Starting today, the San
Francisco-based music service will begin paying musicians $10 for every new
user that they can convince to sign up for an Rdio plan through social media.

Rdio is offering
the deal to any musician already with an artist page on Rdio in any of the 14
countries where it is available, including the United States, Canada, Brazil,
Germany and Australia.

"This hits
the compensation issue, but also fan engagement as well," said Rdio CEO
Drew Larner. He believes this new bounty is a "win-win" for artists,
the fans, and of course the company. Rdio users can stream unlimited number of
songs from their mobile devices for $10/month and have a catalog of millions of
tracks to choose from.

Subscription
services paying artists based on something other
than how often their music is played could possibly shift the perception of
what a streaming service is to the wider music community. Of course, for this
plan to work, the artists need to be on board. Likely to be more interested in
participating will be the smaller artists and bands, which can view a “finder's
fee” of $10 per subscriber as a relatively viable source of band revenue.

However, Rdio will definitely still need to attract larger artists due to their
influence over larger tribes people, and it looks like they already have begun to do so. Several notable artists have already signed up for the plan including Snoop
Lion, Scissor Sisters, A-Trak, Chromeo and Brendan Benson. 

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