Rdio’s portfolio adjustment seems to be a case of trimming its sails and consolidating its bets, along the same lines as the cost-cutting layoffs the company executed in November. By honing its personnel and products, Rdio is smartly veering away from attempting to boil the ocean with overly ambitious diversity. The end-of-year timing clearly foretells stronger competitive headwinds in 2014 — to all streaming music platforms, not just Rdio. The approach of YouTube, Deezer, and Beats Music to the U.S. market promises a glut of consumer choices. Differentiation, the key word in Vdio’s shutdown notice, is the elusive value that all major music services will be chasing in the new year.
Rdio unplugs Vdio
