Rdio's great, but it's long been the under-featured, overlooked alternative to the likes of Spotify and Rhapsody. Now, the New York Times reports that Rdio is striking out with a new freemium model: abundant free music, with a shed load of ads. So, like Spotify then.
Rdio began offering a free radio service last year, but that was it's only free offering—otherwise, you had to pony up for one of its online subscriptions. Now, reports the New York Times, you'll be able to use Rdio to listen to "abundant free music" as long as you're willing to put up with ads.
The new design will fill your screen with ready-made playlists based on your tastes, reports the Times, clearly based on its digital radio heritage. Whether that's the best way to consume music is hard to say, but we don't have long before we can give it a try: the new service will apparently go live in 20 countries from today, according to the Times. [NYT]