MOG Has Music! Announces Rhapsody Integration

MOG Has Music! Announces Rhapsody Integration

Rhapsody Integration Brings the MOG Community Alive with the Sounds of Instant Full-Song Playback

BERKELEY, Calif., Dec. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- MOG (http://www.mog.com/), a network of thousands of music blogs powered by industry-leading music discovery technology, today announced the launch of a full-site integration with the award-winning Rhapsody(R) digital music service that will provide the MOG community with a rich, full song playback music experience. MOG also introduced today an entirely new search functionality that provides instant access anywhere on MOG to the music you already know you love.

"We couldn't be more excited to have Rhapsody enabling music listening on MOG," said David Hyman, MOG's CEO and founder. "With today's release, MOG has put more key pieces in place towards its goal of building the ultimate online music community."

"Rhapsody continues to open doors for music discovery by offering unlimited music exploration," said Michael Bloom, head of Rhapsody. "We are excited to provide MOG's passionate community with the most engaging way to connect with each other and find new music -- through the songs themselves."

MOG's integration with Rhapsody delivers full-length song playback through every facet of MOG:

-- Click the yellow "play" icon beside any song title for instant song
playback through Rhapsody.
-- Use MOG-O-MATIC, MOG's auto-profiling software, and your
"Recommendations" page to find out what people most like you musically
are listening to. Then click "Play All" on your "Recommendations" page
to listen to a playlist of entirely new music customized to your
individual taste.
-- Every MOG-O-MATIC-powered widget on MOG becomes a playlist, so you can
listen to your friends' entire music collections, top songs this week,
last songs played, etc.
-- Go to any MOG page-best friend, favorite rocker, etc.-click "Play This
Page" and instantly create a playlist of every song mentioned on the
page.
-- Tag all your blog posts with song and artist information, and MOG
automatically adds a Rhapsody link so other MOGGERS can check out the
song in-full.
-- Enjoy music in context with Rhapsody-linked songs embedded into over
100,000+ legacy blog posts.

To get started with unlimited music playback, MOGGERs can take advantage of a 14-day free trial of the Rhapsody service. At the conclusion of the free trial, MOGGERS can either sign up for continued unlimited access to Rhapsody's 4.5 million song catalog ($12.99/month), or enjoy 25 full-length songs on MOG for free each month provided by Rhapsody. Current Rhapsody subscribers already enjoy unlimited music playback throughout the entire MOG community for no additional charge.

MOGGERS can also create their own custom Rhapsody-enabled playlists with full-length song playback by clicking the "plus" icon found next to each song on MOG. Playlists can be accessed by visiting the new "My Playlists" section on every MOG page. From there, MOGGERS have the option to post playlists to their own MOG pages for the entire MOG community to enjoy.

Coinciding with the integration of full-length song play back, MOG has also launched a new search feature that lets users instantly access the tracks they already know and love.

"We believe there are two equally important parts to music consumption: music discovery and finding the music you already know you want. Now, MOG has both pieces of the puzzle," explained Hyman. "This new search feature makes it feel as if you are accessing millions of songs locally on your hard drive, so you can find exactly the song you're looking for instantaneously."

MOG is also releasing new versions of its MOG-O-MATIC client applications (Mac and PC). Ten times faster than previous versions, it's now even easier for MOGGERS to share their musical tastes with friends and the rest of the MOG community. The new lighter, faster, and more stable versions of MOG-O-MATIC can be downloaded at http://www.mog.com/download.

When you download the MOG-O-MATIC application, MOG tracks everything you're listening to-whether you're listening locally on your computer, on your iPod, or using the Rhapsody player on MOG-and automatically posts it to your MOG page. Anyone in the MOG community can instantly see -- and now hear! -- what you're listening to. With that information MOG is able to connect you with others with similar musical tastes. The end result is an incredible platform for endless music discovery.

Other new features launched today, include:

-- Revamped album and songs pages
-- A new white website background that improves usability and readability
-- Improved page layout, including truncated posts

Completely free, anyone can create a MOG page and browse posts, MP3s and videos by visiting http://www.mog.com/.

Rhapsody offers consumers a complete digital music experience with unlimited access to millions of songs, professionally programmed music channels and exclusive music content from MTV Networks' music brands including MTV, VH1 and CMT. More details on the Rhapsody music service can be found at http://www.rhapsody.com/.

About MOG

MOG (http://www.mog.com/) is a network of thousands of music blogs created by a passionate community of music lovers and powered by cutting edge filters that make it ridiculously easy to find the music, videos, news and reviews that match your musical taste. Completely free, MOG was started by David Hyman, former CEO of Gracenote, former SVP-Marketing at MTV Interactive, and self-proclaimed music freak. MOG, which has raised $3.2 million dollars in Angel funding to date, was founded in June 2005 and is headquartered in Berkeley, CA. MOG launched its public beta July 2006. For more information go to http://www.mog.com/.

About Rhapsody

Rhapsody(R) offers an integrated and immersive digital music experience accessible to consumers via their computer, portable music device and soon their mobile phone. Rhapsody is the exclusive digital music service for RealNetworks(R), Inc. and for MTV Networks' music and pop-culture brands in the United States. Rhapsody is a service of Rhapsody America LLC, a joint venture between and MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE:VIA)(NYSE:VIA.B) and RealNetworks (NASDAQ:RNWK).

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: MOG

CONTACT: Dana Smith of Dadascope Communications, +1-510-524-2066,
mobile, +1-510-682-3141, dana@dadascope.com, for MOG

Web site:

http://www.mog.com/
http://www.rhapsody.com/

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