rara.com has just been launched for Singapore, Australia and Canada. It is an ad-free streaming music service that provides access to more than 10 million tracks at an introductory pricing of S$0.99 per month.
rara.com has been launched for Singapore, Australia and Canada.
rara.com is currently live in 20 countries across Asia, Europe and the Americas.
The service was launched a month ago across the USA, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Denmark,Finland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and New Zealand.
rara.com’s global footprint is expected to double by the end of 2012.
Grammy award winning Imogen Heap has been named the first Associate Editor of rara.com, which has secured licensing from Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music, Warner Music Group.
“Even if fans want to pay for the artists’ work legally it is often actually very difficult for various reasons. rara.com is a super easy service for everyone to use and I love the information on tracks and artists that rara.com gives you,” said Imogen Heap, Associate Editor on rara.com’s Music Advisory Board.Publishers and collection societies have also licensed the service internationally with Omnifone, whose MusicStation Platform powers rara.com.
HP will pre-load rara.com on HP PCs in Singapore, Australia and Canada.
The service is also available via an app on most Android mobile devices.
The new service was developed following an ICM Research (involving 1,000 adults) commissioned by rara.com which showed that at least 70% of consumers have not bought a digital music track in the past six months; and that 60% had never experienced any form of digital music.
rara.com hopes to attract this group of music consumers who have yet to convert to digital music, rather than wrestle away tech savvy music consumers already using existing online music stores such as Apple’s iTunes and Amazon’s Cloud Player.
rara.com is also available on Android devices via an App.
A simple and beautiful user interface on a standard web browser removes the need to navigate or manage lists of digital media files.
rara.com also features a wide selection of curated music channels to suit the listerner’s mood.
Available at the touch of a button, the service makes playing music online as easy as switching on the radio or CDplayer.
rara.com users can also share music through Facebook and other social networks.
Pricing for rara.com
There are two tiers for the monthly pricing – one for basic online access and the other with added mobile access for Android smartphones.
For Singapore, Australia and Canada, there is an introductory pricing for the first three months of subscription.
Users are free to unsubscribe from the service at any time.
Refer to the table below for the details.
| Country | Plan | Introductory price per mth (First 3 months) | Normal price per mth (after the first 3 months) |
| Singapore | Basic | S$0.99 | S$4.99 |
| Basic + Mobile | S$1.99 | S$9.99 | |
| Australia | Basic | AUD$0.99 | AUD$7.99 |
| Basic + Mobile | AUD$2.99 | AUD$12.99 | |
| Canada | Basic | CAD$0.99 | CAD$4.99 |
| Basic + Mobile | CAD$1.99 | CAD$9.99 |
Is the service available on my iPad? (or other iOS devices?)
Not yet, but I understand from the company that support for iOS devices and other platforms are being developed now. Will update once it’s available.
You mentioned that “rara.com users can also share music through Facebook and other social networks”.
Do the people you share music with need to be subscribers of the service in order to stream the shared music?
Yes, they need to be subscribers in order to listen to the shared music (which is shared via a URL link).
I feel they should allow non subscribers to be able to listen for free to the shared link. The sharing would then serve to attract non-subscribers to explore the service, be impressed by its convenience for streaming MANY songs, and subscribe.
If I’m not already a subscriber, it’s not as if I would be inclined to subscribe just to access a link to a single track that my friend shared. If I’m not a subscriber yet and my friend shares a link to a track to which I don’t have access, I will just pass.
just my two cents’ worth.