The Daily Swarm

From a story about a similar start-up, Rdio, in The New York Times:

That raises the possibility that a lesser known company will lead the wave of new music subscription services — Mog, a three-year-old blogging network that recently raised $5 million, led by the venture capital firm Menlo Ventures. Mog has licensing deals with all four major American music labels: the Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, the Warner Music Group and EMI Music, plus thousands of independent labels through the digital distributors Orchard and Ioda.

Based in Berkeley, Calif., Mog is getting specific about its plans for its “All Access” service, which it says it will introduce by Thanksgiving. For $5 a month, members can listen to as much music as they want from their computer; for $12 to $15, users can access music on their mobile devices as well.

The service is a sort of cross between Pandora, the free online radio site, and music subscription services like Rhapsody. Users can listen to the songs of any artist and build a playlist with only that music. By manipulating a slide bar, users can also gradually add a smattering of tunes by similar artists, in effect customizing their own online radio station. People can then share their playlists from their site on the Mog service.

MOG‘s press release:

MOG, the Web’s premier music blogging destination, today announced that it would launch MOG All Access, an innovative new digital music service for North America, by Thanksgiving 2009. MOG also announced partnerships with all four major music labels: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI Music.

“Our goal with MOG All Access was to build the best service for listening to and discovering music, period,” explained MOG Founder and CEO David Hyman. “To accomplish this, we’re providing access to millions of songs (just about everything), with a drop dead easy way to hear any song or album you like in an instant, from the convenience of your web browser. You’ll get access to MOG radio, a revolutionary listening experience that will forever change how you discover music and truly redefines what radio is, and killer tools for discovery through other users of the service. And you get it all monthly for the price of a beer. We’re setting the music listening bar.”

Through partnerships with all major labels including Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music Group and EMI Music, plus thousands of independents via IODA, Beggars Group and more, MOG‘s All Access will provide unrestricted access to over 5 million tracks. MOG will be adding millions more in the coming months.

Currently in closed beta testing, the service is expected to be available by Thanksgiving 2009 and will cost $5 per month. Curious music fans will be able to sample the service for free.

Hyman explained, “For $5 a month, you can download five songs from iTunes or have access to millions of songs on demand, better radio, a world of relevant articles, reviews, news and lyrics, and a community of fellow fans and expert music sources with whom you can discover new artists, share playlists and explore music.”