Rdio Names Anthony Bay CEO

Anthony Bay

Rdio announced today that Anthony Bay, a former digital media executive at Amazon, Microsoft and Apple, has been named Chief Executive Officer effective immediately.

Bay succeeds Drew Larner, who will become Vice-Chairman and Strategic Advisor to the Board of Directors.

"Anthony's track record building successful digital media businesses over the last two decades has been vast and deep," said Larner. "His experience will be incredibly valuable to Rdio as we focus on building a global, scalable business model positioned for long-term leadership and growth. We're thrilled he's joining Rdio."

During his tenure as head of Amazon's global video business, it grew to the #2 subscription and transaction service in the U.S. While Chairman at Loudeye, Bay pioneered the distribution, promotion and sale of digital media content in the business-to-business space before the company was sold to Nokia. During Bay's time at Microsoft, among his many leadership roles, Bay's team was responsible for the company's ecommerce technology platform and for developing Windows Media Technologies, including Windows Media Player. Bay also served as a member of the company's executive staff. Prior to joining Microsoft, he spent eight years at Apple, three of those in Europe, where his responsibilities included leading Apple's Online Services.

"We set out to build the best music streaming experience and we feel we have accomplished that," said Rdio Founder, Janus Friis, "Now we need to expand our global reach and subscriber base. Under Anthony's leadership, Rdio will focus on building the world's best free, ad-supported streaming service and dramatically growing our active, paying user base, globally. Anthony will also play a critical role in unlocking the value of our global terrestrial radio partnerships. I look forward to working closely with Anthony and continuing to invest in Rdio's success."

"I am thrilled to be joining Rdio," said Bay. "Subscription music offers an exciting and compelling customer experience and value proposition, and we are still in the very early days of this opportunity. There are well over one billion smartphone users with millions more joining every day, and our vision is for Rdio to become one of the 'must have' applications for any listener around the world. Customers love Rdio. Building upon Janus' vision and commitment, the team that Drew has built, and the passion of our customers, we will make that a reality."