Rdio released a redesign to their web and desktop apps yesterday, and it’s a radical change from the previous version. Their design team went totally minimal, taking away the gradients and subtle noise. They’re keeping the same blue, gray, and white color scheme, and the layout is exactly the same, but it seems more spacious. From the blog post:

Hot on the heels of New Rdio, we’re very pleased to introduce another improvement to the Rdio apps on the web and desktop. The Rdio you’re familiar with remains but we’ve updated the look and feel of every single page. We’ve done away with the many boxes, lines, and gradients — Rdio is lighter, brighter, easier on the eye. It’s faster, too.

The overall user experience is similar to Microsoft’s Zune app, with an emphasis on album art and no browser chrome in the native apps. I like the light and minimal UI, but the font Rdio has chosen isn’t crisp enough, and the alignment on some of the controls is a bit off. The app doesn’t seem significantly faster than the previous version, but playback is still smooth, and the sharing options work perfectly. This version of Rdio is nice, although it needs a bit of polishing.

To check out the new Rdio interface, just login to your account, and start listening!