Rdio picks up Dhingana to make a push into India

Dhingana was one of the country's largest streaming services before shutting down last month

Rdio already has a major global presence, offering its services in 51 countries, and in almost all of the major continents across the globe (sorry Antarctica, you're going to have to wait). Like every other big tech company, though, they have at least one big Asian country, with a booming population, in sight: India.

Other streaming services, even Spotify, do not have a presence there but now Rdio has found a way in: by purchasing the now-defunct Indian music streaming company Dhingana, it was announced late Thursday (Friday in India).

The Dhingana team in India will be joining Rdio, including founders Snehal Shinde and Swapnil Shinde, who will be join the executive team at Rdio. They will be working on Rdio’s expansion efforts in India, as well as other emerging markets.

The service, which will be known as Rdio India, will be launchng sometimes  later this year. 

"India is a tremendously vibrant market for music and culture and one of the largest and most important in the world," Anthony Bay, Rdio’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.

"We are one of very few global companies that can provide a great music experience to an expanding international audience and it is our objective to bring that experience to India and to non-resident Indians and fans around the world.” 

Founded in 2007, Dhingana was one of India’s largest music streaming services, with with over one million songs in 42 languages and Indian genres. The company also raised at least $7 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Inventus Capital Partners and Helion Venture Partners in October 2012. 

In February of this year, however, the company announced that it was shutting down due to problems stemming from privacy, as well as the fact that its  biggest partner, T Series, did not renews its license agreement with Dhingana, wiping out roughly 8,000 songs from its library.

The note that the Dhingana team wrote last month can still be seen on its webpage:

"We hope that you enjoyed listening to Dhingana as much as we enjoyed building it. But alas, all good things must come to an end. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for letting us be a part of your musical moments!"

For the founders of Dhingana, Rdio is now giving them a second chance to pursue their goal of bringing Indian music to people around the world/

“Over the past seven years, Dhingana has worked hard to build a music platform that allows millions of users around the world to enjoy the diverse music of India, including a massive Bollywood catalog. We’re excited to continue this mission and further our reach with Rdio,” Shinde said in a statement. “We look forward to working toward a unified launch in India through the Rdio brand in the near future.”

Rdio, which was founded by Janus Friis, the co-creator of Skype, launched in August 2010. The San Francisco-based company offers access to over 20 million songs in 51 countries around the world. The company has not revealed the exact number of users it has.

The company raised a $17.5 million round of financing from new investor Mangrove Capital Partners, with participation from existing investors Friis, Atomico and Skype, in February of 2011.

(Image source: evolver.fm)