Foursquare Teases New Features for SXSW
The popular location-based check-in service Foursquare made a huge splash at SXSW two years ago, using the music festival as its coming out party. So it’s not surprising that it plans to make waves again this year with some new services and apps.
Details are not clear yet, but the company teased its SXSW plans via Twitter and its blog today:
“SXSW IS LESS THAN THREE WEEKS AWAY! NEW APP + NEW BADGES + PARTIES + CONCERT + MOAR FOURSQUARE. DETAILS COMING. OKTHXBAI.
Foursquare and the music industry have not yet found a way to fully get in bed together, despite the interest in doing so from both sides. Foursquare seems content to wait for the music industry to figure out what it wants to do with the social networking service, while labels and managers are still scratching their heads over what approach makes most sense.
Perhaps that will change with whatever Foursquare has planned for the Austin-based music festival. But SWSW is more than just a music Mecca, it’s also a place for new interactive services to go live (Twitter had its coming out party there as well), and not just the music-specific ones. Because so many tastemakers flock to the event, it’s a great way to establish viral buzz among trendsetters.
But we’ve also heard rumblings that a music play may be in the works. That would be a nice change.
Rdio Expands to Roku Devices
A week after introducing a new iPhone app, subscription streaming music service Rdio is expanding further, now onto the Roku device.
The Roku player is a wireless Internet bridge that lets users stream music both directly from the Internet and from their connected home computer. Under the deal, Rdio will now be listed as one of the 150 entertainment channels available to users of the device. The service will be available to both existing Rdio subscribers as well as new incoming subscribers after a free trial. The service costs $10 a month.