Users of the on-demand music streaming service Rdio now have a much prettier interface from which to browse and listen to songs on their iPads. The service’s official iPad app finally launched earlier today.
The new app gives Rdio a slight leg up over its newest and most buzzed-about competitor Spotify, which does not have an official iPad app available yet. The same is true of MOG, another popular on-demand streaming service.
It’s not as though users couldn’t access Rdio on their iPads previously. The service’s iPhone app has always worked fine as a way to stream music on the device. This just gives iPad users a much nicer interface. Rather than scroll through songs on a small (or stretched) UI via the iPhone app, users can now experience Rdio on the iPad in a way that’s much more akin to its desktop and Web apps.
Like its apps for iPhone, Android and Blackberry, the iPad app supports local syncing of songs for offline listening.
Rdio may have beaten Spotify and MOG to the punch on launching an iPad-optimized application, but we’re not sure how significant that race is, since users have always been able to download the iPhone versions of these services and stream music from the device that way. It’s an improved user experience, to be sure, but it remains to be see how significant an impact such details have on the market share of each service.
Like both Spotify and MOG, Rdio costs $9.99 per month if you want to use it on any mobile devices. Web-only access for each service costs $4.99. Slacker Radio, another on-demand music service, offers premium subscriptions for $9.99 as well.
