Music streaming service MixRadio, which was only previously available for Nokia and Windows phones and once known as Nokia Music, has been released for iOS and Android devices in a media event.
At the event, supported by Charli XCX and Nile Rodgers, MixRadio also announced a new partnership with smartphone manufacturer HTC.
MixRadio was once held by Microsoft before spinning off the music streaming service in July of last year. The service was then acquired by messaging app LINE in December for an undisclosed amount.
MixRadio is available to users from 31 countries, and is a free but advertisement-supported service that gives users the ability to make personalized playlists from a library of 35 million licensed songs. MixRadio COO Mike Bebel said that the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil are the company's focus markets, with Indonesia, Singapore and India among the service's most important territories.
"We have millions of users across our current footprint on Windows phones that have been delivering positive feedback throughout our evolution," said Bebel to Billboard, while declining to reveal specific statistics regarding the audience of MixRadio.
Bebel added that MixRadio has taken millions of data points from the user base it currently has as a leverage to expand into iOS and Android devices.
"When they asked me to check out the app I was somewhat skeptical because my tastes are very eclectic," said Rodgers. "When they first approached me I was actually trying to trick it. I wanted to see if it corresponded to anything like my lifestyle, and it did, it worked 10 times better than I thought."
MixRadio also revealed that it has signed a new marketing agreement with HTC which will make the music streaming service the exclusive partner for the smartphone manufacturer's BlinkFeed, which is a system found in HTC devices that provides users with relevant information focusing on news, social networking and imaging.
Other partners that MixRadio has signed an agreement with include the MiCoach Smart Run watch of Adidas and the Omni speakers of Harman Kardon.
Bebel also said that MixRadio will be focusing on enabling users to discover new music from new artists, which is a far cry from the previous strategies of the company of teaming up with known artists such as Green Day for premieres of albums.
"We want to work with all artists around and the world, and in many cases, people don't really know they love an artist until they have an opportunity to discover and experience them," Bebel said, adding that a big part of what the company does is to help music artists in releasing their music out to the world.
