By Charlie McEnerney.

The folks behind Rdio.com, the online music subscription service, started unveiling an online video service yesterday called Vdio for rentals and sales.

Rdio Unlimited subscribers are being sent “special invitations” to try out the service, along with a $25 store credit to try the service out for free in the US and UK.

Unlike Rdio, Vdio is not a subscription service but more like Apple’s iTunes store, where consumers must purchase each rental or download to own. Similarly to Rdio, Vdio integrates social networking appeal into the video service, giving users a chance to see what friends (who you connect to through email, Facebook, and Twitter) are watching.

Rdio launched in 2010 by Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, both of whom were also involved with developing Kazaa and Joost. Skype was sold to Microsoft in 2011; the latter two services are no longer available.

Movie rental prices appear to be $4.99 per program and $14.99 to own. TV shows range upwards from $2.99 to rent with a wide variety of prices to subscribe to a full season of a series.