After a whirlwind ride through many owners the latest one – LINE – has just posted a late-night press release noting that the company is shuttering the doors on the popular music streaming service MixRadio. Ironically, the 58th Grammy Awards just started.
In the tersely worded announcement the company claimed that due to "the financial challenges posed by the music streaming market, and priorities of LINE Corporation, LINE has determined that future growth would be difficult to ensure and decided to discontinue the MixRadio music streaming service."
The messaging company will continue to provide its LINE MUSIC service in Japan and Thailand, which is separate from MixRadio.
Post-Nokia and without a home at Microsoft
Back in July 2014, Microsoft announced that it was selling MixRadio after its acquisition of Nokia's mobile assets. In a surprising move just five months later LINE announced that they had acquired the innovative and creative team behind MixRadio and planned to continue and even expand the service.
Later in 2015, MixRadio under LINE released beta apps for iOS and Android as well as continuing its Windows Phone operations. In late 2015, the Microsoft name was finally removed from the Windows Phone version and promises of a universal Windows 10 app was in the works, although it never came to be released.
Evidently, LINE was never able to turn a profit from the service even with Android and iOS added to the portfolio. There is no doubt that music streaming is a harsh and competitive business, but it says even more that LINE is throwing in the towel after a year at the game.
The full press release is below, and Windows Central wishes all the MixRadio employees luck along with thanks for making an awesome app for Lumia owners.
Source: LINE; Thanks, Anon, for the tip
[Corporate Announcement] Notification of Termination of MixRadio Limited Operations
2016.02.16 Corporate Announcement
Tokyo, Japan – February 16, 2016 – LINE Corporation, owner and operator of the free call and messaging app LINE, today announced its decision to discontinue the operations of its subsidiary MixRadio Limited. The MixRadio music streaming service will be discontinued in the coming weeks as we work with the technical team and partners to ensure a smooth closure.
- Reasons for Termination of MixRadio Operations
LINE agreed to acquire the business and assets making up the music service known as MixRadio from Microsoft Mobile OY in December 2014. The newly established company continued to provide a radio-style music streaming service intended to provide a broader user experience. Nevertheless, after a careful assessment of the subsidiary's overall performance, the financial challenges posed by the music streaming market, and priorities of LINE Corporation, LINE has determined that future growth would be difficult to ensure and decided to discontinue the MixRadio music streaming service.
LINE will continue to provide a unique user experience that blends music and communication via its LINE MUSIC service, which is currently available in Japan and Thailand.
LINE and the MixRadio team would like to thank the users of MixRadio for all of their support of the service.
