Rdio – the new social music service from the founders of Skype and Kazaa – tasked Red with launching its music service and unveiling its vision to bring music back to life.

Our challenge?  Launch a highly-hyped service with a pragmatic tone, prevent rumors and keep stories from leaking, and secure on-message coverage in the most influential business, consumer tech and digital music media outlets. And, position Rdio as the best way for consumers to discover and listen to music. In short, Rdio wanted a team that could knock its launch out of the park.

Red first applied its proven “cREDibility” approach to develop messages that would separate Rdio from the pack and resonate with all stakeholders – from investors to media and consumers.

We road-tested the positioning with leading industry analysts, and then pre-briefed the most influential media.

We secured meetings with the New York Times, BusinessWeek, TechCrunch, Billboard and Wired, whose launch-day coverage rippled out far and wide, and reached Rdio’s target audiences.

On launch day, more than 500 stories, including 52 broadcast stories, told of the new service and included Red’s carefully crafted messages (word-for-word, in many cases!).

TechCrunch commented: “In short, I think it’s phenomenal!”

The Preview launch was the talk of Twitter, business development leads came pouring in, and Rdio quickly took the leadership position as the ‘music service to watch’ by leading digital music reporters.