MOG

Beats Electronics CEO (and Universal Music exec and record industry legend) Jimmy Iovine thinks that when it comes to creating a music service that fans will embrace, the tech guys don't stand a chance.

"I was shocked at how culturally inept most consumer electronics companies are... You can build Facebook, you can build YouTube, you can build Twitter — you can be a tech company and do that," he told AllThingsDigital's Peter Kafka at CES. "Subscription [music] needs a programmer. It needs culture. And tech guys can’t do that. They don’t even know who to hire. They’re utilities."

Obviously, Iovine has faith that his company, with "guys who know music and culture" like himself, Dr. Dre, and Trent Reznor at the helm, is far more suited to creating the killer streaming music experience.

"[Other music subscription] companies, these services, all lack curation... There’s no curation. That’s what we did as a record label, we curated," he said. "We are heavy on curation, and we believe it’s a combination of human and math... Right now, somebody’s giving you 12 million songs, and you give them your credit card, and they tell you 'good luck.' You need to have some kind of help. I’m going to offer you a guide... a trusted voice, and it’s going to be really good."

Interestingly, Iovine says he'd long been trying to push the late Apple founder Steve Jobs towards creating a streaming music subscription service.

"He wasn’t keen on it right away. [Beats co-founder] Luke Wood and I spent about three years trying to talk him into it... He didn’t want to pay the record companies enough. He felt that they would come down, eventually... I think in the end Steve was feeling it, but the economics... he wanted to pay the labels [for subscriptions], but [the fees were] not going to be acceptable to them."

At CES, Iovine and his company named former Yahoo! Music and Topspin CEO Ian Rogers (RAIN coverage here) CEO of Beats' music subscription service, codenamed "Daisy" (which will likely be a repurposed MOG, which Beats owns). More on Daisy in RAIN here.

Read the AllThingsDigital interview with Beats' Iovine here.

Beats Electronics has named Ian Rogers as CEO of its new music project "Daisy." Rogers will also become part of the leadership of Beats-owned music subscription service MOG.

We reported on Beats' Daisy project in RAIN here.

Rogers has been CEO of Topspin Media (a tech provider of retail and marketing software for musicians and other content creators) since 2008, after a stint as general manger of Yahoo! Music (including, at the time, Yahoo's online radio service).

Billboard reports, "Daisy... is Beats' revamping of the former MOG service, which Beats acquired last year. The service is set to launch in late 2013 as a stand-alone company under the Beats Electronics umbrella." Daisy's chief creative officer is Nine Inch Nails founder Trent Reznor.

Read more in Billboard here. and in AllThingsDigital here.

We've written about The Echo Nest before (here), and company executives have spoken at RAIN Summit events in the past. Fortune has published a profile of the company that offers a simple explanation of how The Echo Nest assembles what it calls "The Knowledge" -- its collection of data points on millions of songs that it licenses to leading online music services like Spotify, iHeartRadio, MOG, and Vevo.

The article suggests The Echo Nest's stance towards "openness" (it hosts "music-app 'hack days'" and gives "developers free access to its technology for noncommercial experimentation") "is making it the 'mothership' for entrepreneurs looking to 'create new musical experiences,' explains David McKinney, a coder in Australia whose experiments led to the creation of an investor-backed startup called Discovr."

Read the Fortune article here.

After purchasing streaming music service MOG in July (RAIN coverage here), Beats apparently has some big plans. The company -- famous for its iconic headphones -- is working on an iTunes-like service that would include subscription-based music streaming.

Beats is also reportedly working on its own smartphone (Android-based with its own custom UI, manufactured by HTC) and, believe it or not, a TV. "The purpose, we’re told," writes Boy Genius Report, "is to make a push to create an Apple-like experience that extends from a phone to a TV to a tablet to a laptop, much in the same way Apple does with Apple TV, AirPlay and iTunes." 

Find more from Boy Genius Report here.

Townsquare Media Group, owner of 244 radio stations in 51 markets, plus music web sites like PopCrush, Ultimate Classic Rock and Taste of Country, has acquired MOG Music Network, an ad network that reps music blogs.

In July, Beats bought the other half of the MOG company, the on-demand music streaming service (see RAIN here). Townsquare reportedly paid $10 million for the ad network, which it will rename Townsquare Media.

Read more in the New York Times here and AllThingsDigital here.

It's official: audio technology company Beats Electronics is acquiring music streaming service MOG, reports USA Today.

Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but the L.A. Times and Evolver.fm pin the figure at less than $10 million. Engadget writes, "MOG is said to have raised $33 million in funding to date, so that might give you a ballpark figure."

We first heard rumors about the acquisition in March (RAIN coverage here). Beats Electronics is the company behind those iconic Beats By Dr. Dre headphones. It's also partly owned by major mobile device maker HTC (though it's "unclear how or whether" that company is involved in this deal, reports Engadget).

Evolver.fm's Eliot Van Buskirk sees possibilities for HTC though: "Between Beats, MOG, and its own stuff, HTC can now connect the dots between smartphones, headphones/speakers, and a freemium music subscription, offering ample opportunities for bundling and co-branding."

"Time will tell exactly how we integrate our products and services," said MOG founder/CEO David Hyman. "The addition of MOG's music service to the Beats portfolio will provide a truly end-to-end music experience."

"For now, MOG will remain the same product today as it was yesterday and offer the same rich experience," said Beats president/COO Luke Wood. "What we do know is that we're committed to offering an integrated experience for the consumer — from the point of discovery to the point of playback."

MOG was founded in 2005. Though an on-demand music service like Spotify, MOG has long offered noteworthy streaming radio services (find RAIN's review of their radio offerings from 2009 here). It offers 16 million songs and reportedly has around 500,000 registered users.

MOG has actively partnered with device- and automakers, including BMW, Ford, Logitech, Samsung, LG, Barnes & Noble and others.

You can find more coverage from USA Today here, the L.A. Times here, Engadget here and Evolver.fm here.