bay-anthonyRdio, the online music service that faces competition from the likes of Spotify, Pandora and Rhapsody, has named Anthony Bay as CEO.

Bay most recently led Amazon.com’s video business, and before that he served as CEO of MOD Systems, a Seattle video kiosk company which imploded after its founder, Mark Phillips, was convicted of fraud and money laundering.

Prior to MOD, Bay worked at Apple and Microsoft. At Microsoft, he served as Vice President and General Manager of Microsoft’s Digital Media Division.

rdio-9The appointment comes after layoffs at Rdio last month. Bay wil replace CEO Drew Lerner, who will remain at the company as vice chairman.

Rdio founder Janus Friis (who previously founded Skype) said that Bay will “play a critical role in unlocking the value of our global terrestrial radio partnerships.” The company said in September that it was launching a free, ad-supported music service, in partnership with Cumulus — a move that placed it in more direct competition with Pandora — a company that earlier this year tapped former aQuantive CEO Brian McAndrews as CEO.

As part of that deal, Cumulus took a significant stake in Rdio.

Typically, Rdio charges $4.99 to $9.99 a month for its online music service. The company was founded in 2010, and is headquartered in San Francisco. 

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