Rdio promises to bring back Recommendations

Rdio 2.3.3. for iOS (iPhone screenshot 001)

As of recently, Rdio has been making a number of moves in a bid to fight off the Apple iTunes Radio threat. Just a few days ahead of Apple’s September 10 iTunes Radio launch, Rdio unveiledĀ a new ad-supported music service inĀ partnership with radio operator Cumulus.

And back in August, the popular service gained such abilities asĀ station tuning, improved search, Pandora-style personalized StationsĀ and more.

Rdio’s latest effort to re-introduce some of the original magic involves bringing back Recommendations, a feature popularized by the inaugural 1.0 version of Rdio…

According to Rdio, Recommendations is rolling out to the web starting today and will be available on iOS “soon”. Just like the recently-launchedĀ Stations, Recommendations is meant to expose Rdio users to new music.

Recommendations analyzesĀ what you listen to most and who youā€™re following in order to suggestĀ albums, stations and playlists you might like – yes, albums and stations as well!

What’s best, it’s driven by the recommendation engine Echonest, which powers the likes of Spotify and BBC drawing from its database of 35 million songs.

Key Recommendations highlights include:

Album Recommendations ā€” As you listen to music on Rdio, we compile albums youā€™re likely to enjoy based on your history. Every time you visit Recommendations, more new music is waiting.
Station & Playlist Recommendations ā€” Discover what stations and playlists are popular in your network and in your area.

While features likeĀ Your FM and Stations ease music discovery, Recommendations is a compelling and powerful feature that shouldn’t have been removed from Rdio in the first place, if you ask me.

Download Rdio free from the App Store.

The 36.5MB universal application supports any iPhone, iPod touch or iPad device running iOS 5 or later and is optimized for the iPhone 5’s taller screen.

The app has recently received a makeover proving Rdio very much cares about design. They claim a catalogue of over 20 million songs licensed for streaming.