MOG demo’d the next version of their popular music service to me today, and I was impressed. It combines a best of breed interface with free on demand streaming and a Pandora-like music recommendation engine. The trouble is, it may never launch because only two of the four major music labels are supporting it so far.
MOG has a history of doing cool new things around music. The service today includes a media player plugin that records and analyzes your music habits, a website that has a dedicated page for every artist, album and song with user generated reviews and posts, and an advertising network that provides revenue for 300 top music blogs. Users can also stream music via an excellent front end to Rhapsody.
All of that brings about 5 million unique visitors a month to their network, and the company says they should bring in about $5 million in revenue in 2009.
Now they’ve created a new music streaming product that breaks away from Rhapsody and its limitations. Like competitor ilike, which also uses Rhapsody, users can only stream 25 songs per month for free. That doesn’t compete well with free streaming services like MySpace Music, iMeem, Last.fm and others.
The new service, dubbed Mog 3.0 internally, is a fully free music streaming service that lets users play whatever songs they like on demand. The user interface is as good or better than LaLa, a service that we love despite the fact that streaming isn’t completely free. Founder David Hyman and VP Product T Jay Fowler gave me a demo of Mog 3.0 earlier today.
The service combines the ease of use of LaLa with free, which is enough to get our attention. But it also has a recommendation service that rivals Pandora when it comes to discovering new music.
The interface is genius. Users search or browse songs, artists or albums and then start listening to the music. More songs from that artist are suggested and added to the results as you play the songs. And if you move the slider to the right (see image to right), related music is added as well. That lets the user decide if they want a playlist-driven on demand music experience, or to change things up and add Pandora-style related music to the mix.
It doesn’t stop there. Users can also create playlists with the best tool on the market – it’s easier to create and share playlists than even Project Playlist offers, and users can associate a name, description and image with each playlist as well.
MOG plans to make other changes to the service as well, including adding streaming music to content pages, and creating user profiles that highlight the music you listen to and like. It brings in the best social aspects of Last.fm.
The product is compelling.
But it will quite possibly never launch.
MOG has label deals with Sony BMG and Universal locked up. They’ll provide streaming music rights for free in exchange for a revenue share. But Warner and EMI remain on the sidelines, and MOG says they won’t launch unless and untill they have all four major labels under agreement.
I, for one, really hope to see MOG 3.0 launch sometime soon. And if the last two labels don’t jump on board, MySpace should strongly consider buying MOG. MySpace has label deals locked up but their product continues to have unacceptable technical glitches. The music player is very slow to load and songs have an annoying tendency to skip during playback. Perhaps the MOG team can put that right for them.
More screen shots below – top image is the playlist tool, below that is a user profile page.
Will we spend another 10 years mopping around waiting for the “major 4″ to get it right with services like this?
MOG is a great application, as are a few others mentioned here lately for music, it just seems the music catalog that we all know and love for years are used as a weapon by the labels, but more like shooting themselves in the foot.
Very strange how they all want to negotiate separately but when it comes time for an legal action they all form under the RIAA.
The music catalogue used as a weapon…only to shot themselves in the foot.
Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Don’t worry though, the majors will figure it out – after they’re dead and gone.
MOG also has one of the best true ‘communities’ of any social network I’ve been on. Until work started getting in the way I used to spend hours posting there, chatting with people I’d never met but shared a love of music with ,and even organising meet ups. I keep meaning to dive back in and wonder whether a MySpace purchase would spoil that – I can say pretty much for certain that most of the people on there wouldn’t hang around if it ‘became’ MySpace.
How does this compare to Spotify?
Spotify looks alot sleeker! Pity you Americans is left out.
@ William I agree. The record companies are doing themselves and listeners a major disservice by not support these innovative start ups. In the end they will miss a chance to be a part of the next Youtube or Myspace from day one.
So another product that wants to be a little bit of everything. I’ll stay with Spotify (best there is for streaming) together with Last.fm (best there is for recommendations). Yes, there is built in last.fm support in Spotify.
what about services like fairtilizer (best playlist editor out there) and soundclound that provides services for right owners. music is upload by the the artists and labels …. avoiding a lot of right issues …and this is how myspace started right ?
content owner traction is the key !
This Rocks, MOG is on it… I hope the other labels dont mess this up
the slider interface sounds cool, and MOG are very clued up – but the challenge with all free streaming models is the monetisation
in order for MOG to pay the labels a ‘revenue share’, there has to be revenues from either subscriptions or advertising. majors will not normally give for just revenue share – they also need minimas or equity – or both
companies like spotify and we7 are juggling with these ‘challenges’ and already have licenses in place with all the majors
Seems strange to me that the labels will support a service like MySpace Music, yet won’t stretch their imagination to supporting something even more cutting-edge like this.
I agree with some of the comments, but it seems the music companies are getting it right in some areas but just not stretching out all the possibilities. Perhaps they just didn’t see MOG generating as much revenue as its predicting??
Surprising? The labels are invested in MySpace, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Ya know, that guy who owns FOX, The New York Post and other right-wing rags. It’s money, baby. And that’s where the majors run.
If MOG chucks them 10-20 million the majors will hop into bed and spoon.
thanks for update
The aggregation of your music habits seems a lot like another site, http://www.maestro.fm. Community is a big part about social music sites and it seems to be evident in both websites. It is pretty sad how the music industry is keeping a lot of new technologies out while they are losing revenues. If only they could look towards the future of music consumption to really start to build fan bases around the music which they can use to monetize new streams rather than trying to protect a single revenue stream.
Tried MOG a few minutes ago, maybe it’s getting a lot of traffic because of this post, but the site is so slow as to be unusable.
This is very nice…with 2 labels on board, it’s a nice start…did they give any indication of how discussions with WMG and EMI were coming? Great news MOG!
dennis, the site is working fast for me. might be your connection.
Funny – I just finally deleted my MOG account yesterday. I just don’t understand their angle. First, they were a great blog platform to connect to music fans. Then they’re a music video discovery network. Now they’re competing with Lala.com? All I wanted was to share and talk about the music I love. Simple. I’m not sure what frustrated me in the end, but probably the flexibility of the platform disappointed me.
From my perspective, MOG started out as a small community for deeply passionate music fans to share their thoughts on music and has steadily evolved to become accessible and appealing to a broader audience.
It started as a walled garden, where you had to become a member and blog on MOG in order to be part of the community (and couldn’t really listen to much of the music that was being discussed).
It evolved to integrate Rhapsody, making the listening experience accessible to at least a portion of music lovers. Next, came the move to integrate posts from the blogosphere. Music bloggers who have their own blog could now be part of the MOG ecosystem, and visitors can access some of the best blogging on music from around the web.
This new version of MOG seems to take the next logical step: give users free access to listen to *all* music, whether it’s being blogged about by MOG members, other music bloggers, or is just stuff you come across through the site’s discovery and search tools.
Seems like a great solution that can cater equally well to a spectrum of music fans.
amazon is much better for music
Random album pick: Rufus Wainwright’s Poses album
Take a look at Amazon’s online music service. The first thing you notice:
- lower prices,
- the second, lack of copy-protection hassles.
Below is an informal comparison of iTunes to Amazon’s online music offering. Which would you choose? The choice was easy for us
Category………………… iTunes …………Amazon
Media…………………….. AAC……………….. MP3
Copy-protection ……….Yes……….. No (DRM-free)
Quality …………………128 kbps ………..256 kbps
Integration …………….iTunes…………… Amazon
Price ………………………$11.99…………….. $8.99
http://amazonbe...-vs-itunes.html
Why does Warner continue to be the wet blanket of the internet? Didn’t they just pull all of their music off of YouTube a few weeks ago?
I dont know exactly what their problem is but it sounds like they’re clinging to the old way of thinking.
For those of us in North America, I found some screenshots of spotify (it’s not available here).
at
http://www.scrn...eenshots/102002
Spotify looks like it’s an application, and seems a little different than MOG, in that it looks like MOG came from being a music blogging site, so it integrates discussion of music and cross-pollination of playlists more. If there were to be a comparison of which was ‘better’, it would probably come down to speed…
Speed? I haven’t tried MOG but Spotify is soooo fast… probably because they did something smart with streaming and P2P.
Would be interesting to see a large comparison chart.
I’ve used MOG for over a year now, and I think it’s one of the best places around for discovering new music, and staying on-top-of what’s going on in the music world. Warner and EMI shouldn’t blow this opportunity!
What is wrong with being a place where people can connect around, blog about, learn about and listen to music?? Sounds great to me! It is visions like MOG’s that will continue to push online communities (and music listening) into better frontiers. And the design and functionality blow most of the other online music sites/social sites out of the water. I hope Warner and EMI catch on soon…
Wow, this looks pretty darn good; can’t wait to try it out.
i’ve tried mog and liked it. this new feature seems amazing and if launched would drive me to the website more. hope they get the big 4 to sign on the dotted line.
top cool
Mog Rocks — it’s a real music community with music fans, not people trading pictures of their spring break.
This service looks pretty incredible. Even if it’s half as good as they say it will be much better than any of the other services out there. Plus when you roll in the editorial (which none of the others have) Mog will be the top of the online music world.
Warner & EMI: get yer sh*t together! If you blow this one you might not get another chance.
This sounds like a lot of fun and, from what you’ve described here, it sounds easy. I find that when I’m listening to music online, I get absorbed in what I’m doing and can’t be bothered to keep adding tracks to a player or keep surfing to find more music to listen to. So I end up listenin to a lot of online radio streams. If this player suggests music I might like, so I can keep jammin, then it sounds like the best of both worlds.
But I really hope Myspace doesn’t buy MOG. Myspace has such narrow vision, where MOG seems to be constantly expanding their horizons.
Finally something to rival Pandora and Myspace Music. I’m not a fan of either application and can’t wait for a playlist/editorially driven website to take over the online music community.
I can’t believe these record labels would get in the way of such a cool product. Please don’t mess this up Warner and EMI – music needs MOG 3.0 right now!
MOG has been one of the best music sites for quite a while now and keeps making itself better and better. Somehow MOG has figured out how to broaden its appeal to the mass market music consumers while at the same time keeping its core community of music bloggers and niche music fans as happy as ever. I bet MOG 3.0 would become the ultimate music destination online and would blow MySpace Music away. I want my MOG 3.0!!!
I’ve been on Mog over two years now and found it to be a true music community while also providing introduction to new music that I likely would not have found elsewhere. It does music simply and cleanly, unlike Myspace or other social networking sites that are more than about music. The major labels would be foolish to ignore the opportunity they have with Mog. I’ve bought more music since being on Mog than ever before.
And like HD-DVD before it, and the Atari Jaguar before that, without the lionsshare of content producers (music labels) it is unlikely to make it.
I would like to talk to their lead site designer, though.
- Curtis
http://ShipItOnTheSide.com – Build a software startup as a side job.
Another DOA????
This site looks great. I can’t think of anything else out there that provides all the goodies in one site.
i want to get on myspace
i want to get on myspace
Definitely looks sweet, but absolutely hinges on major label participation.
What I would really like to see is a high quality player like this integrated into a user base like facebook. If they had an iphone app that could stream music and share with your facebook friends, I think it could be a huge market.
Check out http://www.musimuse.com for more thoughts about the music industry. Would love to hear comments!
Hmm… according to CrunchBase, MOG only gets around 650K uniques per month. That’s a pretty big difference from the number you published. You do check your facts, right?
I’ve seen lots of inflated figures from this company compared to the generally lousy performance and dull community activity offered by the site in action. Make sure you don’t believe everything they tell you.
As a past frequent user of the site, I also noticed that they frequently ask diehard fans and employees to post glowing comments on articles like these. It’s a lot of hype, but I urge you not to buy into it so wholeheartedly without doing a bit more diligence.