Rdio wants your money

Rdio? Seriously? Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the people who brought us Skype and Kazaa, have chosen that as the name for their music subscription service:

Like several others in the marketplace, Rdio -– pronounced “AR-dee-oh” -– promises streaming, cloud-based access to a library of millions of songs for a flat monthly fee.

Desktop and mobile access via iPhones and BlackBerrys costs $10 monthly, while desktop-only customers pay $5.

That’s an increasingly familiar price point: MOG, which went live last fall and is now preparing its mobile launch, will have the same two-tiered price system, while Rhapsody and Thumbplay both offer desktop-plus-mobile plans for $10; European fave Spotify offers free ad-supported streams and a two-tiered premium plan.

At the moment it's US-only, and doesn't appear to offer anything compelling in return for shoveling cash into the subscription slot in return for nothing to take away.

It's worth remembering that before they promised to change the music world with Rdio, Zennstrom and Friis set out to change the online video world with Joost. This has more of a Joosty feeling to it than a Skypey one.