Play by AOL Music – in Partnership with Rdio – Attempts to Make Music More Social

AOL has launched a new application – Play by AOL Music – that aims to be a social music portal for those who like to share what they’re listening to with their friends. They’ve partnered up with Rdio to provide the service.

Aside from being a standalone music player, Play gives users the ability to instantly listen to music that their friends have suggested. You’ll get to listen to the full song if you have an Rdio account, but only a 30 second preview otherwise.

Other features include the ability to replace existing album artwork with your own and the option to listen in on various “CD Listening Parties” that’ll let you listen to an entire album set to come out soon. (Not unlike what NPR does.)

And if you’re a subscriber of T-Mobile’s and are interested in the SXSW conference that’s set to kick off today, you’ll be able to listen to live audio and the top 100 tracks from the event for free. If you don’t know, SXSW combines film, music, and an oddly-placed (but highly-appreciated) interactive angle, which mainly highlights applications. Go ahead and find the application in the Android market today by searching ‘Play by AOL Music’.