Music Ally

US streaming music service MOG has been planning its move into mobile for a while now, but yesterday at SXSW it unveiled its iPhone and Android apps – and equally importantly, the pricing to use them.

MOG’s current web service costs $5 a month, but users wanting access via mobile too will pay $10. The app includes local cacheing to listen to music when a user loses their connection. The apps will launch in the second quarter of this year, and CEO David Hyman has revealed that in the UK, the service will cost £5 and £10 without or with mobile access.

The pricing may have implications for Spotify’s upcoming US launch – in Europe it charges £9.99 / €9.99 a month for its premium service, including mobile access. Spotify boss Daniel Ek gives his SXSW keynote tonight…

Social music network MOG has announced plans to finally launch its long-promised streaming music service by the end of November, with all four majors plus indie aggregators on board. However, having originally said the service would be free and ad-supported, MOG has now decided to charge $5 a month for it.

“We were exploring that model, but ultimately that model doesn’t work,” says CEO David Hyman. “None of these labels are doing it at a price point where you can offset it with ad dollars. It’s very simple economics. Even with an upsell to subscriptions, you just can’t make it work.”

That provides context to the rumours that Spotify’s US launch won’t include a free ad-supported element – Hyman claims some labels are now refusing to license ANY free streaming service that’s ad-supported.

Music service MOG has been copping some flak this weekend, after changing the terms by which it pays affiliates in its MOG Music Network of blogs and websites. An email to affiliates revealed that:

“While demand for advertising on MMN continues to be strong, we are seeing a distinct slowdown in advertiser-issued payments. Regrettably, MOG doesn’t have the luxury of paying out affiliates before advertiser payments are collected. This means that we have to push back our payment terms to 120 days, starting with October 2008 earnings onward.”

While TechCrunch suggested this may be indicative of wider problems at MOG, the company moved quickly to claim otherwise, in another email to affiliates (published in full here), stressing that payments will be “WITHIN 120 days, not IN 120 days”, and that the company is aiming to pay its affiliates as close to the original term of 60 days as possible.