I wonder why Spotify gets the press for not being able to negotiate the deals required to bring their service to the States when companies like MOG are already offering pretty much the same thing?
I understand MOG doesn't have a free version and that's the utopian dream of Spotify (so says Wired) --- but Spotify bled money out their noses last year. They were hundreds of millions of dollars in the red. I can't speak to MOG's profitability (I don't have info for them), but I guess as someone who lives in the States where people get sued over music, I look at Spotify and then at competing services like MOG and just sort of shrug my shoulders over $5/mo to get unlimited music onto all of my devices.
I always wondered the same. Especially when grooveshark (an amazing app by the way) essentially offers the same thing. Free streaming, huge library, etc. With the exception of the excellent free word of mouth advertising spotify has been getting.
grooveshark stream their music unlicensed (except for a small amount they have licensed, but it's a relatively small amount) and make money from it. Grooveshark is wrong and I'd personally love to see them shut down. As much as the music industry is fucked up, unless you have permission to profit from someones content you shouldn't but grooveshark do and abuse the DMCA safe harbors.
Sure if grooveshark wasn't for profit then maybe it'd be justifiable, but they profit off a product they don't own or have the permission to, it's lame and entirely immoral. It's limewire but with the content stored in one place... they must have some damn good lawyers.
Though it may seem that way Grooveshark actually has a system compensating labels per time song is played. The unethical part is that its an opt-in system. In other words, they steal first and pay back later if asked nicely. On a plus, they do promote independent bands and offer compensation for such. So, I wouldn't go as far as saying they're like Limewire.
I understand MOG doesn't have a free version and that's the utopian dream of Spotify (so says Wired) --- but Spotify bled money out their noses last year. They were hundreds of millions of dollars in the red. I can't speak to MOG's profitability (I don't have info for them), but I guess as someone who lives in the States where people get sued over music, I look at Spotify and then at competing services like MOG and just sort of shrug my shoulders over $5/mo to get unlimited music onto all of my devices.