There’s a new entry in the clique of social networking sites today with the debut of a beta version of MOG, a free site dedicated to the music-obsessed among us who are looking for a way to express their tastes in tunes, share what they’re listening to, find new music, and connect with similarly-dedicated music fans.
MOG takes a slightly different approach to social networking: while users still use a Web browser to create their profile, upload images and data, and fill out forms, MOG users also download and install the site’s Mog-o-matic application (available for Windows 2000/XP and Mac OS X 10.3 and higher). Mog-o-matic catalogs the music available on users’ systems and keeps track of music they play most often and what new music they add. Mog-o-matic currently tracks plays using iTunes, Windows Media Player, Winamp, Real Player, Real Jukebox, Quicktime Media Player, Yahoo Music Engine, MusicMatch Jukebox, QCD Player, and Napster, and recognizes files in the MP3, WAV, M4A, M4P, and WMA files: notice that AAC andits variants are missing.)
One Mog-o-matic has analyzed a users’ music collection, it uploads information and play data to public MOG pages in a variety of ways: visitors can see recent additions and a user’s music collection, along with 30-second clips of items in users’ collections. MOG does not provide music recommendations based on users’ track information, but does provide links to purchase music at iTunes or Amazon.com. Users are also encourages to use the MOG site to create blogs, photo albums, and pages about their favorite songs, artists, concerts, or other music topics.
MOG is being launched by former MTV marketing exec David Hyman based on about a million and a half dollars from private investors.
