After four years in development, Rdio has finally launched its video streaming service, Vdio. The app takes a lot of social cues from the Rdio music streaming service, allowing users to display and see what their friends are watching. Vdio users will be able to follow their friends as part of its recommendation engine. Users will also be able to make video playlists and share them. This provides much more of a social experience than Netflix, even though Netflix recently announced integration with Facebook.
Vdio won’t survive long without a robust content library and it’s nice to see that Vdio does indeed have a good amount of content available. Currently, there are shows and movies from networks like ABC, CBS, Fox, Showtime, Comedy Central, BBC, NBC, Disney, Universal, and Warner Brothers. TV shows cost $2.99 while entire seasons will run you between $14.99 and $42.99. New movies will cost $4.99 to rent and $14.99 to own. Strangely enough, Vdio isn’t a subscription service like its music counterpart, Rdio. This may prove to be a misstep if Vdio wants to compete with Netflix.
Vdio is still quite new so it’s only available on the web and iPad. The iPad version does support AirPlay so you can stream movies to your TV using an Apple TV. Apps for other platforms should be coming down the pipeline as well. Rdio is giving away $25 worth of credit for current Rdio subscribers to play around with content from Vdio. New subscribers can get this “free” $25 credit also by signing up within the next 60 days.
If Vdio is successful, music streaming competitors like Spotify may follow suit to provide music and video content.
