Cumulus Media Inc., which last month announced the acquisition of a major radio network, on Monday said it is acquiring a financial stake in the parent company of Rdio, an online subscription music service.
Atlanta-based Cumulus did not disclose details of the equity stake it is taking in Pulsar Media.
The deal will allow Rdio to launch free, ad-supported subscription products with Cumulus’ help, including music on-demand, custom playlists and exclusive content curated by Cumulus. The five-year deal will give Cumulus access to exclusive online content to compliment programming at its 520 owned and operated radio stations across the country.
San Francisco-based Rdio is a digital music service founded by Skype co-founder Janus Friis. It’s available in 30 countries. Cumulus said Rdio’s users can play and share more than 20 million songs and build a digital music collection available for streaming online, for mobile or for offline.
Lew Dickey, Cumulus’ chief executive officer, said consumers will be able to “listen to whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want.”
The deal may help Rdio keep up with rivals in the highly competitive subscription music industry dominated by Spotify, which reportedly has 24 million users and 6 million paying subscribers.
Cumulus is the No. 2 radio company in the U.S. behind San Antonio-based Clear Channel Radio, which operates Premiere Networks, where Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity host shows.
Last month, Cumulus announced it is acquiring the Dial Global radio network for $260 million in cash. New York-based Dial Global carries local talk show hosts Clark Howard and Herman Cain, both heard in Atlanta on 95.5FM and AM 750 News/Talk WSB.
Locally, Cumulus operates several stations in Atlanta including Rock 100.5 (WNNX-FM), country Kicks 101.5 (WKHX-FM), top 40 Q100 (WWWQ-FM) and All News 106.7 (WYAY-FM).
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