MOG, Rhapsody Link For Streaming Deal December 12, 2007
- Digital and Mobile
By Antony Bruno, Denver
Music social networking site MOG has added the ability to stream full songs listed on members’ profiles thanks to a partnership with Rhapsody.
The MOG service reads the music libraries of members and posts them to the profile of each, along with a list of the most-played songs, and matches members based on similar music tastes. Until now, other members could only list to 30-second samples from others' profiles.
The Rhapsody deal allows full song-streaming, but with a catch. MOG members will either have to be paying Rhapsody subscribers at a minimum of $13 a month, or limit their streaming to 25 songs a month under Rhapsody's free, ad-supported service. MOG is offering a two-week free Rhapsody trial to all members.
The partnership is part of a larger upgrade to the MOG service that also includes a new layout, design and updated music pages.
By partnering with Rhapsody, MOG is making a sharp distinction from similar services like Last.fm and Imeem. These competitors opted to strike licensing deals directly with the record labels, and pay them directly for each song streamed. Imeem, for instance, will contribute a share of its advertising revenue with each label. That company just signed its final licensing deal this week, with Universal Music Group.
MOG CEO David Hyman, however, feels those deals are not economical. The company wants to focus more on improving the functionality and user interface, and says it can't spend the money to do so if it has to pay off the labels. MOG has raised $3.2 million in financing to date.
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