Rara.com kicks off free trial with Ellie Goulding playlists
Rara.com is opening up its subscription service to provide free music streaming trials and celebrity playlists as it looks to bolster its service to compete with rivals including Spotify and Deezer.
The British music streaming service, which launched in December 2011, has brought in artist Ellie Goulding and celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson to share exclusive playlists and music tips for 2013 on rara.com and will make its service free to listeners for the next seven days.
The move means people can listen to the ad-free service for the next week online and on Android, iOS and Windows 8 devices once they enter the voucher code CES2013.
It has also provided an introductory rate for those which access the free trial via the website, of 99p per month for the first three months, followed by a flat fee of £4.99 per month for online and £1.99 for mobile access, rising to £9.99 for mobile and web access after three months.
Rara.com is available in 33 territories and has a global licensed catalogue of 18 million tracks from all the major music labels including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, along with independent labels, although it is yet to release any subscription figures.
According to Comscore it attracted 30,000 unique visitors in the UK in November 2012, while 286,000 people visited the site worldwide during the same month. The figures do not include mobile usage.
Ellie Goulding said, "At this time of year everyone is talking about who is going to be big in the next 12 months, I've pulled together a few of my tips in a playlists over at rara.com. So many exciting acts out there at the moment, 2013 is set to be a great year for music."
The move follows major developments from rival services Spotify and Deezer, both of which have made significant changes to their music sites in the last six months.
Last month Deezer, which claims three million subscribers globally, launched an ad-funded version of its service in the UK as it continues to aggressively drive its global expansion and become a household brand.
Meanwhile Spotify has announced a host of new features to be rolled out this year, including new music discovery features and will let listeners follow an artist as they would on a social network.