Rdio Will Pay Musicians $10 Per Fan

In the race for the steadily increasing number of subscribers around the globe, digital music service Rdio is planning a rather unconventional way to keep up with the world’s biggest streaming service Spotify. As Mashable points out, the company is becoming the first major music service to pay artists for their social media fan base. Founder Janus Friis, who was also one of the co-founders of Skype and of Kazaa, said:

“There is no art without artists. As part of this industry, we know a business that doesn’t reward its most important contributors is a business that has to change.”

This new system is called Artist Program, and it entails Rdio paying musicians $10 every time they turn a fan into an Rdio subscriber via some form of social media. Truly not a bad business idea if you consider that Rdio makes up to $10 a month off subscribers.

For artists with a massive social media following this measure could also make financially sense. Snoop Dogg — now Snoop Lion — seems to agree.

“I love that any new artist can take advantage of this program,” Snoop said in a statement. “I’m a fan of Rdio already, and it’s cool to see them supporting artists like this.”

What are your thoughts on this? Do you need a special recommendation from your favorite recording artist to subscribe a new music service?