A month ago we were criticizing MOG for over promising and under delivering with their new All Access music service. Our chief complaint was that the service wasn’t free, which was the original vision.
Today though, we reported that the odds are against Spotify launching for free in the U.S., and MySpace Music may move to a subscription model. Suddenly, MOG may be right in the thick of things, despite the fact that they will charge $5/month for the service.
So the timing was right today for MOG to release a first teaser video of All Access. This shows off just a part of the service – playlists. But from watching the video it’s clear that they are creating one heck of a user experience. Search looks to be extremely fast, with intelligent auto-complete. Adding songs from various places in the service is simple (compare to MySpace Music, which is still cumbersome after a year). And users can make the playlists private or public.
The social aspect of the service, including public and shareable playlists, is an advantage over Spotify. Spotify is mostly about you and your music, and you aren’t bothered with stuff from other people. But I like the idea of finding new playlists from friends, or that have been made popular by others. I also like that MOG is browser based and doesn’t require a download. I’ve been testing Spotify but only have it on one computer, so I can’t use it all the time.
It’s still way too early to call services like MOG All Access, or the upcoming and still secretive Rdio, a sucess. But users will pay for experience and convenience. I like what I’m seeing so far.
grr. i cant get over the news about spotify. things were going so well. i better remove it till i know for sure its coming here. ive gotten to use to it.
David Hyman does it with class so expect a great service. This is the future of music folks. Tapping the cloud from any device. Infinite bands, songs, tastes and devices.
just like qtrax.
lame. whats with all the reporting of non-existent websites, that may never come to be? the most frustrating is your CONTINUOUS coverage of “blekko”…
History has proved time and time again that you can’t report so positively on what companies have to say about THEMSELVES prior to launch.
this comment is absurd.
I agree Michael that is an absurd comment.
Why doesn’t Grooveshark ever get mentioned? Their Library is absolutely massive now, and they have an adobe air desktop version for VIP members which is only $30/yr. And they just updated it so even though you close the window the program stays open like it should on a mac. It’s the only AIR app I’ve seen do this. It truly is an amazing service that I wish had more press. I would hate to see Grooveshark go away. I honestly never use Pandora because it has a radio function that acts pretty much the same. Saving playlists is awesome too. Anyways, check it out and do an official review of Grooveshark please….thanks.
Since you couldn’t be bothered to check for yourself, here’s TC’s latest coverage of Grooveshark:
http://www.tech...ill-phenomenal/
You can see the rest on their crunchbase page:
http://www.crun...any/grooveshark
buh bye spotify. guess that’s going the way of napster. hello MOG! bout time.
Sorry to disappoint you RZd-3 but I am the lead developer at Mog and this is not vapor ware. We are in the final stages of polishing the product and I will tell you… if I didn’t work for Mog, I would certainly pay to use what we have built.
Yeah, yeah, pie in the sky.
there are better blogs for readers like you to hang out on.
you mean blogs that require comprehension?
no, blogs for dickheads who just criticize everyone around them to make up for their own insecurities.
I have no insecurities when it comes to the internet, but I just made you lose your cool. Not worth much though…
I was a little concerned that when the auto-complete started to work, the first suggestion wasn’t the official version by Radiohead.
I’ll wait until it launches to pass judgment but I wasn’t blown away with what I saw compared to what’s available for free (imeem) or even hybrid models like Lala.
Oh yeah, why was David Hyman in that video if he wasn’t going to say anything?
It would be nice to listen to music on the Crunchpad…
It seems MOG has the more sophisticated interface and in my opinion, a sophisticated following of what I imagine are the higher volume music buyers. Looking forward to the launch.
Solid mobile support is a must. I could see a big advantage (especially going up against the iPhone) for a carrier to bundle a subscription to MOG with a capable phone – especially on the android platform, since media doesn’t seem to be it’s strong suit.
I have been beta testing MOG All Access for the past month and I don’t think I am overhyping by saying it’s my all-time favorite web service. $5/mnth is a steal.
If this service is as good as it looks here, it’s going to be a winner.
Hey Mike,
You can have Spotify on more than one computer at once, you just can’t use it on two or more computers (or mobiles) simultaneously. Your user name and password will validate you.
Cheers
James
oh yeah i’m sure you can. i just haven’t installed it. I have this great OS called a browser on all my computers though.
… which will never be as fast or as stable as a native application.
Completely agree with JDS here. The Spotify-application is 7 megabytes big and takes no time to download and install. Does Mike run Skype from his browser as well? A native application is a must if the speed and quality of service is to be guaranteed.
And another thing Arrington completely ignores is the fact that MOG has no chance agains winamp, itunes and other desktop applications that the users can fill with any music they want, illegaly and legally downloaded. Whereas Spotify, in Arringtons own words, “acts as a fully stocked Itunes”. Well there you go. A fully stocked Itunes (or Winamp, or Windows Media player or whatever) versus a slightly clunky browser experience. People have used Winamp and the like for almost fourteen years now. Does anyone seriously think MOG is gonna change that?
Jack,
You’re absolutly wrong. These types of services are the new radio.
The days of downloading and “owning” a file are numbered.
iPods days are numbered.
Apple’s dominance and profits from music via their iPod domination are numbered.
That’s all and that’s it.
Touché – if you like a browser based option I don’t know of a better option than http://www.we7.com
“The days of downloading and “owning” a file are numbered.”
Completely agree. My point was that no music service prior to Spotify has been able to “mirror”the feeling of owning, and having access to the all the worlds music, as if it was stored on your own computer. Thats the difference with Spotify (as a streaming service). You can easily switch from winamp, itunes, to Spotify without feeling like you are missin something. This can´t be said for Deezer, we7,lala, imeem,grooveshark. and other slower alternatives.
win. win. win.
mogs better than spotify but the monthly charges of mog are a big letdown as its clearly not what was the original vision of mog . .
newayz does mog contain features like podcasting and online radio ????
Mike continues to spotlight great music services, but the issue are the outrageous high cost to license from recorded and publishing companies in the U.S.
Sure I would be willing to pay $5 or even $10 a month for an all-you-can-eat music service to stream in what I want when i want. The issue is the service would need at least 1 million paying users a month to break even with licensing costs and more users to make any profits.
People do not know the legal nightmare that goes along with U.S. music licensing:
Recording distributor has to get paid (Arm of record label)
Recording owner has to get paid (record label itself)
Composition publisher has to get paid (sometimes this can be up to 5 parties!)
Songwriter has to get paid
Artist has to get paid.
Now making this happen for $0.02 a stream, you can see how much this does not work so well.
So to compensate all hands in the pot of just this one song (lets not even talk albums) the negotiations get very expensive because everyone wants a payday upfront, even if no one ever request to play a song on said service.
Technology is not hurting music, the business of music is hurting it.
Right, right…No one seems to fully understand the music business and how it works. All these “All- you-can-eat” services will run dry, as long as the Big Major Labels exist, and continue to call the shots.
MOG already has a nice business with their music advertising network. If this is break even and brings in new users, it’s a win.
A browser solution is a disaster for scaling and mobile devices. This will never be any good.
disaster for scaling? have you ever heard of youtube?
I think your comment is unnecessarily arrogant. What Hans probably means is that browser based services like lala, Mog,Myspace Music,Grooveshark,Imeem etc can never have the quick response time (and high bitrate streaming) like a client based service like Spotify has. Which is completely true because if they did have that, the cloud would have replaced the harddisk long ago. We wouldn´t be using Itunes, Winamp and other desktop apps filled with lots of legal and illegal mp3´s. But a lot of people still do (not so much in countries where Spotify is available though) use these programs, which proves that browser based music services hasn´t really been able to compete against the desktop. Desktop (Itunes, Spotify, Winamp, Windows media player etc ) still wins. Browser loose. Ask anybody if they prefer regular US browser based streaming service over their own Itunes or Winamp. I think you know the answer.
People used winamp and itunes because the files are local. That’s like saying YouTube should have been an app. Or gmail should be better with gears. Makes zero sense.
“people used winamp and itunes because the files are local”
People use these services for a lot of different reasons, but I the main thing would be that they contain all the music you like (like for example Spotify, in most cases also do,playlists acting as your archive) and that they are quick, and have high quality of sound (ie what used to be the main benefit of a music file being local). But things have changed. You get all that with streaming, if the service is good enough, and in order for the service to be good enough, my argument is that it has to be a desktop app (enabling p2p technology like for example Skype).
Youtube is fantastic and works because they have infinite cash resources. If google wants it to scale they will make that happen no matter what technology they use. A newcomer has to use techonogly that scale and isn´t too expensive, like p2p. Google could spend a few billion dollars to ignore p2p and make skype work in the browser, but Skype, when they started couldnt afford that and had to innovate. Like Spotify. Unlike MOG.
jack, this is david hyman from MOG. we’re using external resources for hosting streaming that have more than ample capability. when we launch you can use yourself. the files are 320kbps and the latency is super small, to the point where it’s not noticeable. and what you get in return for keeping it in the browser is a alot considering the small trade-off. the system can handle a massive amount of simultaneous streams. more than we’re anticipating.
Hyman:
“the files are 320kbps and the latency is super small, to the point where it’s not noticeable”
I must say that I appreciate your ambition. If what you are saying is true, then you will definietly do better than almost all other streaming services in the US. I´m a fan of p2p-technoglogy but of course, as digital infrastructure evolves, and broadband and storage gets cheaper, p2p is perhaps not as crucial as it once was for start-ups with limited cash resources, when it comes to delivering lots of data to a lot of users very fast. It will be interesting how this plays out and again, if what you are saying is true, then Spotify (if and when it gets US release) will be your only real competitor. Good times for music consumers!
320kbps streaming? SOLD! Quailty has been my biggest issue with streaming services and 320 is what I would use locally so MOG may be the answer I have been waiting for (it only took 10 years). The other other issue(s) I have with straming services is the heavy install rquirements. If I can use any browser to access my music from anywhere I may be in the world MOG may have a life long subscriber! I’m keping my fingers crossed.
william blanchard, the data you have is incorrect for subscription services. you do not need a million subscribers. nothing close to that.
MOG rocks- cant wait, for music service launch
People should really check out hypem.com. It’s basically a free, on demand music service with built in “trending” or “popular” information, the ability to create your own playlists which you can share, and even the option to download songs which have been publicly posted on blogs or through itunes/amazon, etc. All this with an integrated player on the site makes this a serious winner.
To clarify, it’s a music blog aggregator. You might think that this makes it lacking in its library content, but the truth is what song out there nowadays isnt blogged about?
Wait a sec. MOG is still around?
Sounds like MOG is going to go directly after iTunes. I’ll buy, why spend $5 a month on 5 songs @ iTues when I can have the entire library wherever, whenever I want it….
MOG is the shizzle.
Please have a media center interface. Please have a media center interface. Please have a media center interface…
320 kbps mp3 streams? Wow! I hope that is consistent across all streams because there is nothing I hate more than listening to a playlist of varying quality ESPECIALLY when I am paying for them.
Sounds like a very promising service. I’m in for the first month for sure. Beyond that, they will have to prove they have the content, quality and experience I am looking for to justify the cost.