The market forces conspired against MOG, a music service and blog network started by David Hyman. The growing popularity of Spotify saw the company fall on hard times and was sold in pieces. One half went to Beats Audio & Townsquare media has bought the other half. Read more »
HTC has come clean on how much it spent on MOG, and it ain’t that much: The cell phone maker told his investors that it only forked over $14M for the music subscription service. The question is: Why did MOG sell for so little? Read more »
MOG, a streaming music service has been subject of acquisitions rumors, with phone maker HTC as the likely buyer. The really low valuation shows how far behind it has fallen behind current industry leader, Spotify, which ironically is being valued at a breathtaking valuation. Read more »
Beats Electronics, the headset manufacturer founded by rapper Dr. Dre and now majority owned by HTC, has reportedly bought up online music service MOG. The acquisition could help HTC or Beats launch their own music service, something HTC is reportedly working on. Read more »
iLike was once the most popular music application of Facebook, with close to 10 million active users generating 1.5 billion page views per month. On Tuesday, it finally shut down. Its demise proves once again that online music is a tough business to be in. Read more »
New entrants are pushing alternative business models in the music industry. Though this evolution will take time, the overall industry should return to growth within the five-year forecast horizon, as digital music spending, driven by subscriptions, will average double-digit yearly growth to total $4.1 billion in 2015. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
As media and entertainment went digital, many looked to the music sector as the canary in the coal mine. Digital comprises over 40 percent of consumer sales, but the whole market was worth only $5.9 billion in 2010. Even digital felt stagnant. But that’s changing. Read more »
Connectivity changes everything. That’s the credo driving just about every corner of our day-to-day lives. As human beings, we are now connected to one another through not just our social networks but also our cars, the books we read, the albums we download and even our own health and wellness habits (to name just a few areas). With that in mind, GigaOM Pro has singled out certain areas in the technology industry where we see this shift to constant connectivity taking place most drastically. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Music streaming service MOG just released new growth figures, and it turns out that the music platform launched by Facebook in late September has given it a big boost. MOG now has 160,000 monthly active users, representing 264 percent growth for the month of October. Read more »
It’s been close to a year since LimeWire was forced to shut down its file sharing platform. LimeWire’s website has since been reduced to a single splash page – but it’s still attracting more than a million people a month looking for free music every month. Read more »
As music services Mog and Rdio take up defensive positions by launching new free-to-listen services, it may look like streaming is the future. But retailers like eMusic are fighting back by arguing that purchasing songs remains as relevant as ever. Read more »
Sonos, the wireless music system, has achieved what it calls the 1 million room milestone. For a web service, such a milestone may not be as notable, but for a hardware maker that has been selling gear since January 2005, it’s a big deal. Read more »
Spotify’s journey to the US has been highly anticipated almost since the on-demand music streaming service first launched in its native Europe in October 2008. But with all the Spotify buzz, let’s not forget about the great music services that were born here in the US. Read more »
We all have our secret Lady Gaga songs tucked away in our playlist or the 80s’ Monster Ballads that are loved rather than laughed at, so now as Spotify comes to the U.S., here’s how to avoid sharing the skeletons in your musical closet. Read more »
EXCLUSIVE: Clio might not be the most familiar name in the world of music recommendation — but its system is one of the most intelligent. And now the Philadelphia service has strengthened its hand by signing a major deal to provide its services to Hollywood’s biggest studios. Read more »
Europe’s hottest on-demand music service, Spotify, is narrowing its free offering as it tries to boost subscription numbers and prepare for an American launch. Will it finally end the ongoing delusion that advertising can ever make enough to support streaming music services? Read more »
Digital music alone hasn’t been enough to return the music industry to its former state of prosperity, and despite attempts by the likes of Apple, Google, MOG, Spotify and numerous others, a viable new business model has yet to emerge. But music is inherently social, and ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
TV apps will soon be “everywhere,” according to attendees of a recent GigaOM Bunker event examining the future of the TV market. But how that market will develop, and which TV platforms will win out, is yet to be ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
At today’s GigaOM Pro Bunker Session, attendees and panelists agreed that standards will be needed to push the TV app market forward, and their app development efforts might get a whole lot simpler if more CE manufacturers turn to HTML5 as the platform for connected devices. Read more »
The latest rumor to hit says Apple might be interested in buying Spotify, a hot music startup based in Sweden. There’s news that Google almost bought them for $1 billion last year. What does the company say to all that? It’s not for sale. Read more »
Apple today introduced Ping, a music social network that is part of iTunes software. It allows iTunes users to share their favorite tunes, buy music recommended by friends and follow their favorite artists. Ping hints at a new future for social commerce. Read more »
After two months in invite-only beta, streaming music service Rdio will enter general availability Tuesday morning, offering unlimited access to a library of seven million songs for a flat fee of $5 for desktop service and $10 to add a mobile component. Read more »
Expected soon after the launch of its music subscription service last fall, MOG’s iPhone and Android mobile apps will allow access to a library of more than 8 million songs for a monthly fee of about $10. That represents an increasingly attractive standalone offering for handset makers. Read more »
Roku announced this morning that it added the MOG on-demand music service to its broadband set-top box, expanding the number of streaming services that are available through its platform. The addition of MOG comes as Roku strikes partnerships with a growing number of content providers. Read more »
Music service MOG unveiled its new mobile applications today, promising premium subscribers the ability to stream any song, anytime, anywhere. Its launch also represents an erosion of opportunity for Spotify, the European service that has promised (and delayed) its U.S. launch for several months. Read more »
