Beats, the headphone and software music monger, has just coughed up something in the region of $14 million (£8.9 million) to buy US-based streaming company MOG. Music streaming is undoubtedly a smart addition to the Beats brand, but what does it mean for its fans?
MOG’s not yet available in the UK, but it offers much the same service as the likes of Spotify; that being access to millions of songs to stream or save offline to a device, for a monthly subscription of $9.99.
Beats’ decision to buy the company has come out of the tail end of many months of rumour and speculation. We knew that beats was looking to expand, but not exactly how. “The addition of MOG’s music service to the Beats portfolio will provide a truly end-to-end music experience,” MOG CEO David Hyman said to USA Today.
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But what does that mean, exactly? Currently, Beats headphones are the company’s bread and butter, with a sideline in software EQs in HTC phones. We can see this going one of two ways: aside from the obvious point that MOG’s online arm and apps will be rebranded, HTC could adopt the streaming service as part of its beats integration.
This wouldn’t be a stretch. Samsung now offers its own music streaming service on the Galaxy S3, after all. Tell you what would be more exciting, though: Beats headphones with WiFi MP3 players woven in. That’s something that we know Apple’s looked at in the past, and it’s a cool prospect.
Still, we’ll just have to wait and see. One thing’s for sure, though; there’s no shortage of music streaming services available now, so Beats will have to do something clever with MOG to stand out.
