rara.com has switched on 7 new countries, increasing its global footprint to 27 markets and increasing its catalogue of licensed music to 18 million tracks with thousands of independent labels signed up through global rights agency Merlin and leading independent digital distributors The Orchard, INgrooves Fontana, Believe Digital and VidZone Digital Media.

rara.com chief executive Nick Massey comments, “I am pleased to announce that rara.com has made a significant step-forward in the execution of its roll-out strategy and can now be enjoyed in more places, on more devices, with more music and with more partners.

rara.com gives you the music you feel like listening to without you having to know the name of every track you want to play. Our expert team of musicologists hand curate rara.com’s channels and playlists bringing you music for every mood. Available on web, Windows 8, iPhone, iPad and Android, rara.com’s beautiful user interface makes it easier to play the music you love wherever you are, whenever you want, with no annoying adverts.”

New apps for iPhone and iPad

Dedicated rara.com apps launched for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad provide instant on-the-move access to rara.com’s vast music catalogue and expertly curated channels and playlists. Available to download from the App Store, the AirPlay compatible iOS apps synchronise your music experience through the cloud so that your favourite tracks and playlists from the web are instantly accessible on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Tracks are automatically stored on your device so that you can enjoy the music even when offline.

New Windows 8 app

rara.com also announces the launch of its app for Windows 8 devices launching later this week. rara.com for the new Windows user interface provides simple one touch access to rara.com channels and playlists. On-demand search for rara.com is fully available through the Windows 8 Search charm. rara.com’s app for Windows 8 can be used on the full range of Windows 8 desktop, tablet and hybrid computing devices running the new Windows 8 operating system and will be available to download later this week from the Windows Store.

Global agreement with Lenovo

rara.com also announced a global agreement with Lenovo, one of the world’s leading PC manufacturers. Lenovo is preloading the rara.com music streaming apps onto Lenovo and Medion branded Windows 8 and Android devices around the world. Devices include Lenovo’s Windows 8 PCs, convertibles and tablets, as well as Lenovo Android tablets, including the IdeaTab S2110, A2105, A2107 and A2109 tablets. Lenovo Windows 8 devices include: select IdeaCentre desktops and ThinkPad Classic and Edge laptops, IdeaTab Lynx tablets and IdeaPad laptops, including the recently announced flip and fold IdeaPad Yoga convertible PC.

Lenovo World Wide Marketing, Software Ecosystem & Cloud Solutions directors Deepa Kumar says, “Our collaboration with rara.com will give our customers a great new way to explore and enjoy music on our innovative devices, whether it’s on an all-in-one desktop at home or on one of our convertible PCs switching between work and play. With easy-to-use music apps rara.com makes accessing music simple.”

Updated web service and Android app

rara.com launches an updated web service with an improved sign up process and a range of stability improvements, customer account management features and additional language support. rara.com’s Android app, available to download from Google Play, has been updated to enable playback control from a dedicated rara.com widget on your Android device home screen.