I used to pride myself on my CD collection. Even when MP3s became the norm, I still went out and purchased CDs because of their versatility. Sure, I’d immediately rip them into my iTunes library and file them away for safe-keeping, but I considered my system future-proof. Instead of purchasing digital files in formats that might go out of style, I could always re-import my CD collection into any new format that came along.
That process ended as I began realizing that all music would be cloud-based in the future. There isn’t a need for a physical collection when you have anytime access to everything. Over the years I’ve tried out just about every “rental” music service available - Rhapsody, Napster, Slacker, Rdio and MOG, but with the introduction of MOG’s music apps for the iPhone and Android phones, I’m pretty convinced the days of building a music collection are limited.
Here’s how a service like MOG works - you pay a fixed amount per month, say $5 (computer access only) or $10 (computer + phone access), for all of the music you want to instantly stream or download to your phone. Here’s the big caveat to a service like this - once you stop paying, the music stops playing. Also, the files you get aren’t like your typical MP3’s you can load onto any device. They’re “locked” in your phone. But the benefit is that you literally have tons of music at your disposal.
The reason I’m liking MOG so much is because they have built an amazing app for two of the most popular mobile platforms - and 99% of the time, my phone serves as my music player.
MOG’s mobile app is one of the fastest and easiest I’ve ever seen. You can find any song, artist or album in seconds and begin playing it or a mix based on it. Another click and you can download the song, artist, album or mix to your phone so you can listen in a place where you don’t have wireless coverage like a plane or subway. I went through and “favorited” all of the artists in my physical collection so now I have 24/7 access to them anywhere I am - with the added bonus of being able to access many more of the songs they’ve recorded - not just the ones I decided to collect.
MOG has a winning combination here and so far has done many things right. Signup is a cinch with Facebook connect and the free trial requires no credit card. The major downside to having your music like this is the flexibility. You can’t buy an MP3 and play that file on your PS3, store it on the iPod in your glove compartment, burn it to CD or sync it to a random music player. Still, companies like MOG are working on that - it’s already announced plans to offer their service on the Roku box, so I suspect they’re working on similar deals. After all, when you have access to your tunes no matter where you are, a physical collection - whether on CDs or a hard drive - is quickly becoming irrelevant.
via Stuff Rich Likes
