Rdio's collapse will hurt Sony, Roku and Shazam
When a company goes under, the firms that it still owes money to have to bear the pain of those unpaid debts. Rdio's collapse has, unfortunately, sent ramifications through the tech and music industries that'll see firms like Roku and Shazam reaching for the Tylenol. Music Business Worldwide is claiming to have details of Rdio's bankruptcy filing that reveals that it owed $2.7 million to Roku and $1.7 million to Shazam. In addition, the service had promised Sony Music $2.4 million and Facebook $495,000. Ouch.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the firm was losing $2 million a month, which goes to show just how expensive it is to run a music service. When Fortune dug into the details of (French streaming firm) Deezer's IPO, it found that the firm was eating a pile of cash each month and that "streaming music is a terrible business." Between artists withdrawing their content in protest at low fees and firms struggling to make this business pay, Rdio may not be the only company that'll drop leaving a line of aggrieved creditors.
