MOG Acquired By Beats Electronics: Music Streaming Meets Headphones
Welp, it's another acquisition in the books. Rumors were flaring months back, but all fell quiet until now. USA Today is reporting that Beats Electronics -- the company responsible for those colorful headphones adorning the heads of athletes everywhere -- has acquired MOG. If you're unfamiliar with MOG, it's considered the closest competitor to Spotify, and while the service itself has a few things that Spotify doesn't (a genius radio mode, for instance), Spotify has seemingly sucked up all of the hype. It's likely that this acquisition will get MOG into more minds as Beats aims to create a complete end-to-end listening experience.
As of now, neither party is willing to disclose terms and conditions, but Beats' president and chief operating officer Luke Wood did open up with the following: "Beats was created as a response to the complete erosion of the music experience. Our whole reason for starting Beats was to try to bring emotion back into that experience. We believe music services is a vital part of that ecosystem."
MOG was founded in 2005, and currently offers streaming of around 16 million songs for free; a $10/month premium subscription is available for those who want to house that music in offline form on a mobile device. MOG founder and CEO David Hyman in an email exchange: "Beats is a company as obsessed with sound quality as we are and we share a common goal of creating a more premium sound experience and emotional connection with music in the digital era. The addition of MOG's music service to the Beats portfolio will provide a truly end-to-end music experience."
It's impossible to say when the two companies will tie things up in regard to product offerings, and what it means for existing subscribers. We're guessing nothing for the latter, but who knows -- maybe a Beats-optimized version of the streaming software is on deck.
As of now, neither party is willing to disclose terms and conditions, but Beats' president and chief operating officer Luke Wood did open up with the following: "Beats was created as a response to the complete erosion of the music experience. Our whole reason for starting Beats was to try to bring emotion back into that experience. We believe music services is a vital part of that ecosystem."
MOG was founded in 2005, and currently offers streaming of around 16 million songs for free; a $10/month premium subscription is available for those who want to house that music in offline form on a mobile device. MOG founder and CEO David Hyman in an email exchange: "Beats is a company as obsessed with sound quality as we are and we share a common goal of creating a more premium sound experience and emotional connection with music in the digital era. The addition of MOG's music service to the Beats portfolio will provide a truly end-to-end music experience."
It's impossible to say when the two companies will tie things up in regard to product offerings, and what it means for existing subscribers. We're guessing nothing for the latter, but who knows -- maybe a Beats-optimized version of the streaming software is on deck.
