Cumulus CEO briefs employees on details of Rdio partnership

In a memo to Cumulus employees, CEO Lew Dickey commented today on yesterday’s announced deal with music service Rdio, more specifically revealing the Rdio features that Cumulus will likely make available to listeners.

The broadcaster announced yesterday it has acquired a “significant” ownership stake in the music subscription service, which has been struggling to gain the visibility of competitors like Spotify. Rdio will represent Cumulus’ primary digital strategy.

Dickey confirmed Cumulus programmers will be tasked with “refining the technology” that Rdio uses to create its “custom radio” services (the Pandora-like feature that allows listeners to create their own streaming experiences based on the artists and songs they like best). Dickey very explicitly stresses “this is not radio,” and takes a little poke at Pandora for selling this “feature” as “radio.”

He also revealed Rdio functionality will be used to create nationally-focused audio content (Cumulus recently acquired radio network Westwood One-Dial Global). “The Rdio partnership will allow us convert this valuable programming into new digital audio products,” he wrote. “Cumulus will draw upon our stable of iconic brands, content and talent to produce new, exclusive channels and short-form programs that give listeners an unparalleled listening experience on a single digital platform.” Dickey said Cumulus local radio streams will remain on Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio for the time being, and while there’s no plan yet to incorporate them into Rdio, that may indeed change.

Dickey mentioned Rdio’s core offering — its on-demand streaming feature — but didn’t explicitly describe if or how Cumulus would leverage this feature.

He told employees: “Partnering with Rdio, we are now able to meet the full range of audio needs for listeners nationwide and begin to export our content and brands worldwide. This strategic alignment uniquely positions us to compete aggressively against all digital audio services for the benefit of our entire platform.”

Relatedly, outgoing Rdio CEO Drew Larner told GigaOm’s Janko Roettgers that Rdio plans to bundle its streaming movie and TV service Vdio with Rdio’s streaming music for a global subscription offering (read more here).

News source Radio Ink acquired a copy of the Dickey memo, and has published it here. See yesterday’s coverage of the Cumulus/Rdio deal here.