Spotify may have a leg up in the Nordics, but they must realize that users will happily leave if a competitor comes along with a service that brings their favorite movies, TV shows, and music under one roof. It appears Rdio and Vdio might be joining forces, but Spotify is also churning up rumors that it is partnering with HBO Nordics.
Even though Rdio was founded by the Swedish and Danish Skype co-founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis in 2010, by focusing on the U.S. market they still haven’t made the same cultural dent in the Nordics like Spotify has. Still, they offer solid competition through a browser-based music streaming service (much like what Spotify is rumored to be working on).
Friis also founded Vdio, a video streaming service that seems to have done little since we first covered it back in October of 2011. PaidContent writes they’ve learned that the two teams, which have been kept separate entities, are now sharing resources, which hints at a singular service even though their management has been kept separate.
A Danish tech blog at Bleep.tv2.dk has apparently learned that Spotify has created a new division for movies and television, and is in negotiation with making HBO Nordics their partner. HBO Nordics announced at the end of August that their launch date is set at mid-October, meaning perhaps we may be hearing an announcement from Stockholm relatively soon.
This could all be the rumor mill grinding out some pure speculation, but lord knows I would pay for a complete media streaming service. We’ll see what happens in the region.
