Nokia MixRadio is spun off as a stand-alone streamer

Nokia MixRadio is a victim of Microsoft's recently announced paring of jobs. Despite being jettisoned from Microsoft, the stand-alone music streamer will still be found on Windows Phone handsets. But now a free-agent, the app could end up on an iOS or Android device. In other words, Nokia MixRadio is being spun off, something confirmed by the app's CEO, Jyrki Rosenberg. The executive has been meeting with potential investors in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Back in 2011 when it was launched, the service was called Nokia Music. Nokia made the feature free when it began, hoping that it could attract consumers to Lumia devices. But in January 2013, Rosenberg introduced Nokia Music+. For $3.99 a month, users could get unlimited skips, and play an unlimited number of tunes offline without an internet connection. Additionally, the premium service featured a much higher quality of streaming music


With iOS and Android now in its sight, Nokia MixRadio does have some competition from other music streamers like Pandora. And of course, Apple's newly purchased Beats Music is also in that conversation. Rosenberg says that Microsoft is shifting its entertainment blueprint from using in-house content providers, to working with partners. So that has opened the door for Nokia MixRadio to go after users of other platforms besides Windows Phone. Sure, it's a dog-eats-dog business, but right now the app is running in 31 countries and has millions of users, which means that it has a solid footing from which it can expand.

source: The Guardian via Engadget