Online music vet launches song service for smartphones

Internet music veteran David Hyman on Monday unveiled a service that promises low-cost "all-you-can-eat" on-demand songs for users of Apple iPhones and Android smartphones.

MOG All Access Mobile will be live in the United States by mid-year with a music streaming and downloading model that he hopes people will find irresistible.

The service will let users listen to personalized MOG Radio channels, listen to any tunes on-demand, and download songs for offline listening for monthly subscription fees of 10 dollars.

"If you are a music fan spending 10 bucks a month on music and you don't switch to this you are insane," Hyman said while demonstrating the service at a press event at a South By South West gathering here.

"You could have unlimited everything for 10 dollars. Offline listening, you get it all."

MOG Mobile capitalizes on a hot trend toward software applications being offered as services in the Internet "cloud" and being accessed by increasingly sophisticated smartphones.

"We really think the time is right," Hyman told AFP. "We are riding the trajectory of 3G networks and smartphones. Subscription services without real portability could have never taken off."

Hyman was a co-founder of online music magazine Addicted to Noise launched in 1995 and a former chief executive of digital music company Gracenote, which Sony bought for 260 million dollars in 2008.

"MOG is a revolutionary new business model," Hyman said. "For a subscription fee we will bring this into your house and we will play any song you want."

MOG has content deals with the four major music studios along with a host of independent labels, according to Hyman. Downloaded songs are removed after people stop subscribing to the service.

MOG Music Network currently streams tunes to personal computers for a monthly subscription costing five dollars. It boasts a catalogue of seven million songs and 16 million monthly visitors.

"People who are used to free music are feeling that five dollars a month is worth it," Hyman said.

MOG Mobile, which will be coupled with computer service, will launch for Android and Apple smartphones by mid-year, according to the firm.

"We will have to wait to see if Apple approves the application," Hyman said, noting that the iPhone maker has let onto its online App Store shelves software for other music streaming services that are rivals for iTunes.

"I can tell you for a fact that Android is not an issue."

Android is open-source software backed by Internet colossus Google.

(c) 2010 AFP