The Beginner's Guide to Rdio

What's This?

By Marissa Cetin2013-08-05 15:00:38 UTC

You can learn a lot about a person by browsing her record collection, scrolling through her iTunes library or checking out her playlists. Listening to music is a highly personal experience, and one of the perks of streaming is finding the one that best fits your music style.

On first impression, Rdio and Spotify seem identical. Through either, you can access a massive library of music, pick a song or album and listen at will, at price points of $5 (unlimited desktop listening) or $10 (unlimited desktop and mobile app streaming, plus offline syncing).

See also: How We Discover New Music

That's where the similarities end. Rdio feels especially geared towards fans hooked on music discovery, with its bright, clean interface and a smooth, organized experience.

For those just getting into the streaming game, Mashable created this beginner's guide to kickstart your Rdio experience.

Setting Up

There's no need to download a native desktop app first — sign up directly on rdio.com. The Rdio web player is identical to the OS X and Windows desktop apps, convenient for listening when not at your usual computer. You can sign up through Rdio via your Facebook account or create an Rdio account.

The drop-down menu in the top-right corner is your customization guide. From here, click "Apps" to learn about the desktop, web, mobile and accessory apps that suit your devices. "Settings" will help you manage your subscription, connect external accounts, edit personal info and opt in or out of email notifications.

The subscription models mirror Spotify's, with a $5 unlimited desktop and browser streaming option and a $10 level that also includes unlimited mobile streaming plus offline syncing on mobile. However, Rdio's free version, while ad-free, has a mysterious cap on how much you can listen to before it cuts you off, measured by an ambiguous meter that adapts to your listening habits.

Also under the settings "External" tab, connect your Rdio profile to your Facebook and Twitter accounts — it will pull a profile image and save you that extra step. Key feature: Last.fm compatibility. Connect your Last.fm account to Rdio and make sure your scrobbles stay up to date. Once you've linked your Rdio account, it stays connected if you log in via another computer's native app or browser. This differs from Spotify, which requires you to re-enter your Last.fm credentials in order to scrobble songs from each new computer browser and app.

Music Discovery

Rdio's gorgeous, bright white interface contrasts with colorful album art — it's the music discovery version of a candy store. Don't let Rdio's minimal number of left sidebar browsing tabs fool you — "Heavy Rotation," "New Releases," "Top Charts" and "Recent Activity" are all it takes to find your next favorite album.

New Releases

Here you have the ability to look at not-so-new releases (see "Overview," "Last Week" and "Two Weeks Ago" tabs at top-right). This tab is perfect for staying on top of the latest music, from that No. 1 radio single to the most recent independent album Pitchfork stamped "Best New Music."

Heavy Rotation

Heavy Rotation is where things get really fun. Unlike "Top Charts," which showcases what's playing most on radio, flying off the physical and digital shelves, this section highlights what the Rdio community has been listening to most. Heavy Rotation is much more diverse than Rdio's other sections, filled with independent artists across genres and albums, from last month, last year, last decade and beyond — Liz Phair next to Autre Ne Veut next to Speedy Ortiz next to Kanye West. It's perfect for stumbling upon a record you've been meaning to listen to when picking out your play queue.

See also: 8 Ways to Discover Your New Favorite Band Online

Following Users

Rdio's social features encourage you to be your own curator.

Under "Recent Activity," you'll find all of the — you guessed it — recent activity of the users you follow. Find your friends via the top-left search bar, which conveniently separates searches into sections: "Artists," "Albums," "Songs," "Playlists," "People" and "Labels."

The "People" and "Labels" filters are a couple of Rdio's major strengths. A variety of knowledgeable music publications and artists run active accounts, and fans of specific labels can directly follow them to keep tabs on latest releases and promotions. Recommended publications, people and labels to follow: NPR Music, College Music Journal, Pitchfork, The A.V. Club, Billboard, Consequence of Sound, Snoop Lion (Dogg), My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Conan O'Brien's Team Coco, Best Coast's Bethany Costentino, Merge Records, Polyvinyl Recording Co., Ghostly International, Frenchkiss Records.

In addition to friend updates, see which music your followees have recently added to their collections or have synced to mobile. View which of your friends is online and their most recently listened to tracks by clicking the second button in on the top-right navigation bar and opening the right sidebar.

Once you begin following users, you'll notice their avatars appear underneath albums they have listened to or saved. This subtle curation feature emphasizes Rdio's dedication to music discovery and is a powerful recommendation tool.

Reviews

Everyone's a critic. Rdio capitalizes on this by setting up comments on each album or single, under the heading "Reviews." You can also read a specific user's reviews by viewing his or her profile and clicking the "Reviews" tab.

Rediscovery

The "History" tab keeps a record of your listens, organized by album, radio station and playlist. If you can't remember that song on your earlier radio station, this is how you find the crucial details.

Listening

Of course, listening to music is the main goal of Rdio. The platform offers a number of places where you can listen to your music, though don't try clicking, or even double-clicking, on a song name. That will circle you back to the album on which that song is found. You have to click the play button in order to play a song.

Your Collection

Rdio's "Collection" feature solves the Spotify problem of ending up with a playlist section flooded with saved albums and Spotify's counterintuitive, rarely-touched "Library" section. Instead of creating a new playlist every time you want to bookmark an album, add that album to your collection; it saves all in one organized place, with options to view by album art or list mode plus a left-side list of artists (shown in above screenshot).

Hovering over the album art will reveal a play button in the center, a share button on the left and a "+" add button on the right. Clicking to that menu offers all the options you need: add to collection, sync to mobile, queue, save to a playlist, download and share.

Play Later

Click the "+" add button to add albums and songs to your queue, found on the left sidebar under "Play Later." This functions like you would expect a play queue to, but Rdio ups the ante by making it easy tweak your queue (see buttons underneath "Clear") and making it look pretty, too.

You can view your Play Later queue by licking the bulleted list icon found in the bottom-right corner of the app's bottom player.

Radio

Find the "Start Station" button in the top-right area of a few pages (the exact placement changes on different pages): your collection, artists, people and labels. This works as you would expect, though unlike other Internet streaming radio services that keep next songs a surprise, here you can see at least two songs ahead.

Also, Rdio's stations feature an impressive amount of variety; repeated songs are not as common as other radio services. Paid subscribers can skip forward as they wish.

When you first sign up for Rdio, the default sets up the Heavy Rotation radio station on auto-play, so turn that off or risk the twang of a Tim McGraw song right after an ambient album. Switch off radio auto-play on the "Now Playing" page, underneath the "Up Next" section (see image in previous Play Later section).

Playlists

Rdio playlists function like other music services, with the option to share and subscribe to other users' playlists and save them to the left sidebar. Collaboration is key — you can make playlists completely open (anyone can contribute) or open only to the users you follow. (The standard non-collaborative playlists are also an option.) When you create each playlist, Rdio gives the option to make it public or private, as well as an extra personal touch with a description field. Rdio's $10-tier subscribers can sync these playlists to the mobile app.

Remote Control

If you've begun listening on your laptop and then move to another computer, or you open up the app on your smartphone, the "Remote Control" feature makes sure you never miss a beat. You can continue playing right where you left off from the original location, or choose to play from the new application.

On the Go

Just as gorgeous as its web and desktop players, Rdio's mobile app (for iOS) accomplishes nearly as much as its larger-screen counterparts.

Conscious that data charges can get pricey, Rdio allows you to change settings: only allow Wi-Fi streaming and syncing, or choose an offline mode to only play synced songs. When browsing your collection, Rdio lets you switch views between your full collection and synced-only albums.

There's much more to discover with Rdio; this guide is only a start. If you're looking for more tips and tricks, Rdio's blog shares insider secrets to make your streaming experience even better. Happy listening.

Image: Rdio

Topics: Apps and Software, Entertainment, Home, How To, Music, rdio, Social Media, streaming, Travel & Leisure