Beats Electronics acquires MOG music service

Beats Electronics, the company best known for its Beats By Dr. Dre headphones, is acquiring the online music service MOG.

The parties did not disclose the terms of the acquisition, the first for the company co-founded by rapper and producer Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope Geffen and A&M Records.

"Beats was created as a response to the complete erosion of the music experience," says Beats' President and COO 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, founded in 2005, offers more than 16 million songs available for free online – including its Facebook App – and by subscription on portable devices, LG and Samsung Smart TVs and other devices.

"Beats is a company as obsessed with sound quality as we are, and we share a common goal of creating a more premium sound experience and emotional connection with music in the digital era," said MOG founder and CEO David Hyman in an e-mail exchange. "The addition of MOG's music service to the Beats portfolio will provide a truly end-to-end music experience."

Neither Wood nor Hyman would venture examples of how the companies' products might be cross-promoted. But extended trials of MOG's portable features for Beats By Dr. Dre customers would make obvious sense. You can listen to MOG for free on MOG.com and on Facebook; unlimited ad-free listening is $4.99 monthly and unlimited portable downloads is $9.99.

"Time will tell exactly how we integrate our products and services," Hyman said. "MOG and Beats have a shared vision of providing a premium sound experience to listeners and increasing the emotional connection they have with music so building on the solid foundation we've created, the possibilities around future innovation are endless."

The Beats team tried many music services, but MOG's commitment to music fidelity sold them, Woods says. "They were the first service to offer their entire catalog in the 320-kilobit format. I also think they were the most progressive and the first service to be really committed to multiple access points in the deals they did with LG and Samsung for the TV and BMW for the car (and) they were very quick to push music to the smartphone," he says. "They understand that the consumer wants ubiquity. They have an extremely talented management team and engineering staff. So it's really about the product, the service and the talent at the service we are buying."

A music delivery service connected with Beats products completes an audio connection, Wood says. "This really gets us back to the beginning of the music experience, which is actually the discovery and the environment to consume the content."