Beats By Dre to Overhaul MOG

[Decatur Greg]

There were also many speculative posts made about not being able to search, the catalog moving to a single music genre, and all other sorts of conspiracy theories.

For the most part, this growing thread is proving from the first-hand experience of others that as the new service comes up, most of the "sky is falling" prophecies are simply not true. It's not all cheerful rosy news and there have been technical glitches (as you have experienced first hand), but it seems that for non-Squeezebox users the new service (for those who can access it) is proving a lot of the speculation wrong.

And for what it's worth, I am a Spotify/Squeezebox user so I don't have a dog in the hunt - but I am following this with interest as some of what happens with Beats will likely create a competitive ripple into the other services

I agree that most of what I have been reading is probably unfounded. I would love to be able to login and see what's available. I read in their news release a catalog of over 80-some million songs. I would hope that I can find anything I'd like to listen to in that catalog.

 

[Jeffery]

I don't understand why so many are intent on discrediting Beats before they even have a chance to prove themselves. Why not give them a chance instead of trying to bury them? What good does it do? I guess it must be fun for the naysayers to pile on. Every new company have a few growing pains. I don't get all the negativity.

cubdog

I don't have a dog in the fight, so it's easy for me to wait and see how it all plays out. I think the irritation is that MOG mostly worked already (my account issues with them aside). All Beats needed to do was change the name and go on down the road, but their big roll out appears (again, just from my perspective) to be sort of half cocked/half baked.

I don't think some extensive beta testing across all platforms behind a secure IP would have hurt them, they've owned the MOG site for months now. I've done beta testing for a website just like that, poke around and try to find stuff that doesn't work and send in a report. Would it have been that much trouble to set a guy up with a laptop and Chrome browser and see if he could use the site?

January 21st ain't the time to realize your site don't work, maybe they should have kept some of the MOG coders around to show them how it was done.

So they'll figure it out, or won't. Stick around or not.

 

[Condorsat]

Beats Vs. Spotify

8 Track vs Cassette, Lp vs CD, HD DVD vs Blu Ray ... here we go again!

Beats Vs. Spotify: Let The Streaming Wars Begin

http://www.i4u.com/2014/01/61518/beats-punches-spotify-counters-let-streaming-wars-begin

 

[Decatur Greg]

Did they give up already???

Still trying to get logged in. Now I get a 404 (page not found) on their freakin' login link!!!

Can someone else try this and see if you are able to login from a PC. I can't believe they've had the login function down all day!!

This is the link:

https://beatsmusic.com/

Go to sign up and from there you'll see a small "login" link in the middle of the page for existing users or use the "login" link at the bottom of the page.

 

[withmusic]

I don't understand why so many are intent on discrediting Beats before they even have a chance to prove themselves. Why not give them a chance instead of trying to bury them? What good does it do? I guess it must be fun for the naysayers to pile on. Every new company have a few growing pains. I don't get all the negativity.

cubdog

While I no longer have a dog in the fight: Growing pains are one thing and easily identified, just the nature of things, but inexcusable poor customer service, lying etc is a whole other ballgame. I'm not so sure that BM messes with your computer's EQ settings, especially in a TSR way (Terminate and stay resident). I think if they did there would be some huge questions that would need to be answered in front of some official board or something?
Knowing who some of the players are and experience with the company in the past it would not surprise me to find the bad practices and poor CS carried over to the music service. This is true of any company.

 

[jhoyt]

I think I'll ride MOG/Squeezebox until the very bitter end, then see where people's opinions lay regarding Beats vs. Spotify, et cetera, ad infinitum.

Long Live MOG! Long Live Squeezebox!

 

[withmusic]

I don't have a dog in the fight, so it's easy for me to wait and see how it all plays out. I think the irritation is that MOG mostly worked already (my account issues with them aside). All Beats needed to do was change the name and go on down the road, but their big roll out appears (again, just from my perspective) to be sort of half cocked/half baked.

I don't think some extensive beta testing across all platforms behind a secure IP would have hurt them, they've owned the MOG site for months now. I've done beta testing for a website just like that, poke around and try to find stuff that doesn't work and send in a report. Would it have been that much trouble to set a guy up with a laptop and Chrome browser and see if he could use the site?

January 21st ain't the time to realize your site don't work, maybe they should have kept some of the MOG coders around to show them how it was done.

So they'll figure it out, or won't. Stick around or not.

From the perspective of one without a dog in the fight: Per the leaders at Beats (via press releases), the whole thing is just about being number one and knocking out Spotify. They don't care about the customers all that much except for how many there are. It's all about the numbers and a fast buck.
So in spite of the claim in their press releases to have been testing the service for a while well before launch, it does look like it was hastily done to a point.
Also the fact that no trial period is offered (7 days is not enough time to cancel service before being charged if one does not like it) outside of the "supposed 30 days for MOG members" (also should be viewed with some question given the track record of Beats). While every other service offers at least a 30 day trial no matter what, which is plenty of time to decide. One must ask, "why only 7 days BM"? What happens now if the service is not up during the unreasonably short trial period through no fault of the end-user's system?
In case nobody has noticed there is a streaming war afoot. Spotify just opened their flood gates a few days ago with "free for everybody on every device they support" (with the exception of the premium service with what that gets you) in response to the assumed Beats threat. Other volleys are probably coming.

 

[crouse]

I think I'll ride MOG/Squeezebox until the very bitter end, then see where people's opinions lay regarding Beats vs. Spotify, et cetera, ad infinitum.

Long Live MOG! Long Live Squeezebox!

Got an email from Beats saying MOG will cease to exist on April 15. I have the same attitude as you. After April 15 I'll check out the other services and see if I like any of them.

 

[uofmtiger]

A new article from Slashgear related to some of the issues that Beats Music has been experiencing:

"Beats Music has temporarily frozen sign-ups to its Spotify-rivaling streaming service, blaming high demand for the shutters slamming down on new users getting access. "Our priority is to give everyone a great experience" Beats Music said in an email to those who had pre-registered usernames, promising an extra week of trial access for anyone who signs up this week when the service re-opens.

According to Beats Music, the potential for high interest affecting service performance wasn't unplanned for. "We prepared for issues like these," the company said, "have a plan, and are going to hold off on letting more people in while we put this plan in action."

The company hasn't said exactly when it aims to begin accepting new registrations again. Currently, the site shows a 404 page error when the "Sign up" option is selected.

Beats Music launched on January 21st, offering streaming and offline play to mobile devices for $9.99 per month. The service aims to cut through the catalog-overload some users experience with Spotify, Xbox Music, and others, by curating playlists.

As we found in our Beats Music review, that means a combination of dynamically-created playlists based on individual user preferences, and a selection of frequently-updated song collections by industry professionals."

I was able to log in via my iPad tonight and access all of the features without any issues. Hopefully, they are already on the way to getting some of the issues resolved. (EDIT) I was also able to sign in using Safari on a MBP and it seems to be working fine right now. Much better than last night already.

 

[chicks]

Been messing with the 'droid app on my tablet. Pretty nice UI, they've thought it through really well, and it should get a lot better with intelligent curation.

 

[withmusic]

Been messing with the 'droid app on my tablet. Pretty nice UI, they've thought it through really well, and it should get a lot better with intelligent curation.

Thanks for posting that shot.
I know some like it and if it's your thing there is nothing wrong with it. Personally though that is a train wreck to me. I just want the albums listed, nice and clean like the old MOG was. I hate having to scroll through a bunch of garbage to try to get what I am after.
I wonder though, is there a way to turn all that stuff off and just get the results one is after?

 

[chicks]

Thanks for posting that shot.
I know some like it and if it's your thing there is nothing wrong with it. Personally though that is a train wreck to me. I just want the albums listed, nice and clean like the old MOG was. I hate having to scroll through a bunch of garbage to try to get what I am after.
I wonder though, is there a way to turn all that stuff off and just get the results one is after?

Yes, the Sonos UI is exactly that. I posted a screenshot earlier in this thread or the other.

 

[chicks]

Here's a Sonos search of Beats by playlist name. Optionally, could have searched by artist, album, tracks, or users. Playlists can be built and saved on the Sonos or on Beats.

 

[tomlinmgt]

Those UI's you're getting on your SONOS Chicks look exactly like the UI's I was getting on my laptop using Google Chrome. I searched, listened, saved, and A/B'd with MOG for about an hour last night with zero issues. It was JUST LIKE USING MOG except with a different UI. Not a single intrusive episode from the website and I've yet to get an email from Beats. SQ is dead nuts same as MOG as far as I could tell.

- Michael

 

[seekingsound]

Those UI's you're getting on your SONOS Chicks look exactly like the UI's I was getting on my laptop using Google Chrome. I searched, listened, saved, and A/B'd with MOG for about an hour last night with zero issues. It was JUST LIKE USING MOG except with a different UI. Not a single intrusive episode from the website and I've yet to get an email from Beats. SQ is dead nuts same as MOG as far as I could tell.

- Michael

Coooool, that is good to hear (and see); thanks guys.

I haven't signed up yet because I'm waiting for the free trial offer. Are you guys using the basic 7-day free trial and planning to then use the one-month trial for MOG subscribers with a different account?

 

[uofmtiger]

The app allows you to just search, pull up albums and play. It can be very simple to use and you don't have to use the curation features.

Personally, I love the "Just for you" section, but the genre section is very useful, too. One of the issues with having millions of songs at your fingertips is trying to find stuff you are interested in after the first few months. The Beats app is better at helping you find music than any other source I have seen. It has numerous ways to do this, so you can pick your poison (so to speak). I love listening to music that I know, which is why I have a decent album collection, but discovering new music can be just as exciting. This app gives you the best of both worlds.

Also, one if the issues with Pandora or other "radio" type apps is the lack of true customization. I used to have a program called " Moodlogic" that would match you music for what you were doing. The Beats app has numerous ways to do this. The Activity section seems "too cute" on the surface for my taste, but the ability to say (for example) I am chilling and want jazz music works for getting the mood I want.

I got an email that said they would add 7 more days of free service because or the problems they were having, too.

Thanks for posting the screenshots. I wrote a review that I linked in another thread, but the service was so sporadic last night that I decided to spend my time exploring the menus rather than pulling screenshots. So far, the service has worked a lot better tonight.:thmbsp:

 

[FoolForARadio]

Hi There,
Thanks for the email, at this point and time there is no known information on weather or not Squeeze Box will work with Beats. Please stay tuned as new information may come up on this matter. Thank you for your business.
Thanks
Jonathan
Beats Music Listener Support

Regarding Beats' support for the SBT, I got this yesterday. I like what I see of the UI on the Sonos and PC/Laptop, I hope they will support the SBT though I would not be surprised if they do not.

I started my 30-day Spotify Premium trial but implementation on the SBT lacks all but a few functions - not near as full function as MOG and that leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[John James]

I don't understand why so many are intent on discrediting Beats before they even have a chance to prove themselves. Why not give them a chance instead of trying to bury them? What good does it do? I guess it must be fun for the naysayers to pile on. Every new company have a few growing pains. I don't get all the negativity.

cubdog

I don't get it either. The same thing happened on a couple of start-up turntable threads. I say give it a chance and see where it goes before trashing it.

 

[shadco]

Here's a Sonos search of Beats by playlist name. Optionally, could have searched by artist, album, tracks, or users. Playlists can be built and saved on the Sonos or on Beats.

but the major whine seems to be that Beats isn't going to work on an abandoned platform that is no longer supported.


.

 

[chicks]

but the major whine seems to be that Beats isn't going to work on an abandoned platform that is no longer supported.

For those invested in SB, it's a double blow. First Logitec abandons them, and now MOG. Sucks, big time. I have an SB Radio that I sometimes used with MOG, so I'll be affected by this.

Sonos, IME, is better in just about every way than SB. It's not inexpensive, but it should be obvious by Beats' rollout on the platform that it is taken seriously by the content providers. It is their little powered speakers that no doubt provide most of their revenue now, but the Connect products, which SB users are more likely to migrate to, are excellent.