Monday, June 30, 2014

Rdio: Dickey Says It's Not Generating Revenue..Yet

Lew Dickey Jr.
Cumulus Media Inc. CEO Lew Dickey Jr. says the company got involved with Rdio not because of Pandora, but because of iHeartRadio.

In an interview with the AP, the 52-year-old Dickey says Rdio provides Cumulus with a 'bridge to the future'.  It got a  15 percent stake in Rdio in exchange for providing $75 million worth of promotional airtime on its stations. Cumulus also gets to sell ads for Rdio's free mobile service under the deal starting in July.

As to the strategy for Rdio, Dickey told the AP:  "This is a scale business. Rdio's in 51 countries. Janus Friis (who co-founded Skype) has spent close to $200 million on this business to build it. This is a business that will be a global scale business and I think there will be handful of survivors at the end of the day. I believe the digital music space today is very nascent. I liken it to the Myspace phase of social. I don't think it's clear who the winners are going to be."

He also disclosed Rdio isn't a revenue generator yet. Adding, "we've got a business that's growing, we've got a business that's generating an enormous amount of cash, and we're positioning this business for the long run."

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