Music Streaming Service MixRadio Closing Shop After String of Financial Challenges

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MixRadio, the once-popular music streaming service from Microsoft, will be no more in a few weeks. Japanese company LINE, also behind the popular messaging application by the same name, is shutting down the company it bought from Microsoft in December 2014, MixRadio Limited.

LINE says in a press release that MixRadio’s closure is informed by a string of financial challenges. With the entry of heavyweights like Apple in the music streaming business and the departure of players like Rdio which was bought out by a competitor, Pandora, towards the end of last year, the music streaming business is not for the faint-hearted. Even Pandora is said to be currently in talks with potential buyers. Since LINE already has a music product in its core product, its messaging application, it is ready to shut down the service that started life as Nokia Music back in the day.

MixRadio, an exclusive of Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform during its early days in the hands of owners Nokia and later Microsoft, expanded to Android and iOS after the LINE acquisition but it looks like that did not bring in enough revenues to sustain the radio-style music streaming service.