Mog’s Android app presents quality subscription music option

While I use my Nexus One for plenty of different tasks, there are two things I use it for more than others: listening to music and reading. Often at the same time. There are plenty of free apps, such as Pandora and Slacker, that will stream music like a radio station. In many instances that will work, since I’m often lazy and don’t want to pick what I listen to. Yet there are always times when I want to listen to a particular artist. That kind of desire isn’t compatible with most free streaming radio apps. In the past we’ve gone over streaming music applications for Android. Most recently it was Rdio, a service that not only streams music right to your device, but syncs with your iTunes, allowing you to easily play the songs you already own. Those songs can be cached, too, so you can play them while you’re out of signal range. For the tracks you don’t own, though, it appears that you can’t do much if you don’t have a signal. I hope this is one of the aspects that Google’s upcoming music service corrects. Caching is huge, especially for city and country folk, since there are many areas with weak or no signal. Mog, another streaming music service, has gotten rave reviews from many outlets, including TechCrunch. They recently released an Android app, and it beats Rdio in a number of ways. First is its library, which measures 8 million songs. That’s right around what we see from major music providers Rhapsody and Napster, so you can expect to find most of what you’re looking for on Mog. Second, it allows you to download songs and store them locally. You’ll lose them, of course, if you cancel your subscription, but while you subscribe this is a wonderful feature. The downloaded versions default at 64Kbps for faster transfers, but you can get the files in up to 320Kbps (which, any audiophile will tell you, is the only acceptable bitrate for MP3 files). Like Rdio, Mog costs $10 per month. At this point I’d have to say that the cost is much more justifiable. The streaming — including custom radio stations — plus download features, in addition to the larger selection of songs, makes this a value. You can sign up at Mog.com. If you’re undecided, that’s fine; they offer a free three-day trial, and you don’t even need a credit card to get it. Look for a full review sometime soon.

About the Author

Joe Pawlikowski is the Senior Editor at MobileMoo.com and has been covering the mobile industry full time since 2007. When he's not writing about the tech scene, he can be found discussing his personal love - baseball (and more specifically the New York Yankees) as well as writing on his personal blog.