Beats Electronics has announced that it has completed its long rumored acquisition of MOG music, reports USA Today. Terms of the deal have not been made public, although negotiations were known to have started as far back as March. Beats, which is part owned by HTC and forms an integral part of their smartphone lineup, plans on making the MOG music experience part of its end-to-end music experience.
Beats was created as a response to the complete erosion of the music experience, said Beats’ president and CEO Luke Wood. 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 competes with a number of similar online music services including Spotify and Rdio. It offers over 16 million tunes in its catalog, all streaming at 320 kbps. According to Beats CEO Wood, one of the reasons it was keen to acquire MOG was that it was the first such company to offer its MP3s at the higher quality bit rate as it cared about the sound quality it was offering, aligning with Beats philosophy.
It is thought that HTC will integrate the MOG service into its smartphones, further enhancing its music-centered approach attracting potential smartphone buyers. The companys first attempt, the HTC Listen service, failed to catch on with consumers partly because it was limited to being listened to on HTCs devices only. One of the advantages of the MOG platform is that it works across multiple devices, allowing users to enjoy their music across platforms thereby broadening its appeal.
