You know how you’re supposed to be supportive of people at the gym because at least they are trying to make an effort to be healthy and improve themselves? I don’t feel that way. I’m the judgmental person who gets annoyed with those people.

When I see people taking up treadmill space at the gym and they are walking at a pace that is less than the pace I would walk in a crowded mall, I just get upset.  In particular at my little apartment gym there are a group of women who use the gym as their social hour. They take up all the treadmills, walk at 1.5 miles per hour and gossip. Loudly.

And then when they are done with that they take all the weights do a couple of arm moves and then leave the weights wherever they happen to be standing.  One of them wears the same silk top every time I see her. And it smells like she isn’t aware that gym clothes must be washed even if you only walk 1.5 miles per hour.  Also they never wipe down their machines.

There is gym etiquette people and you shouldn’t use the gym if you aren’t going to follow it.

Also, random aside to just say, can you guys believe how cranky I am? I mean every single stranger I run into seems to have annoyed me over the last few weeks.

Probably one of the hippest music conferences earlier this year was the SanFranMusicTech conference that packed 600 into the swanky Kabuki at 1625 Post in San Francisco.  Well they’re back by popular demand this Monday with Third Eye Blind – how cool is that!  There will be live streaming on the site at www.sfmusictech.com and you can follow along on Twitter at #SFMT.  On Tuesday, VentureBeat delivers DiscoveryBeat workshops for developers seeking to chart in the apps stores.  Best kept secrets shared by Playfish, Playdom, Zynga, RockYou, IGN, SGN, Smule, ngmoco…looks pretty awesome.  Not sure of the hashtag, guessing it’s #DB.  For those of you looking for money, the place to be is on Sand Hill Road for two fantastic days of the AlwaysOn Venture Summit, they’re using VSSV on the site so I’m assuming #VSSV is the hashtag, and they usually live stream.  And then on Friday at Microsoft, SD Forum hosts the Business of New Media:  Where’s the Money with Tim Chang, Guy Kawasaki, Zynga, Gaia, Yahoo!, The Wrap.. .also no official hashtag yet, not even attempting to guess this one.  For those of you in LA, Digital Media Wire’s Future of Film at the Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica – recap AFM, prep for EFM, and meet all the key players – the lineup looks incredible. Follow at #FOFILM.  Agendas are posted below:

M 12/7 9-6
SF MUSICTECH SUMMIT
Hotel Kabuki, 1625 Post, San Francisco
www.sfmusictech.com

Tu 12/8
FUTURE OF FILM
Sheraton Delfina, Santa Monica
www.lafilmconference.com

Tu 12/8  2:30-7:30
DISCOVERY BEAT
Guide to discovery in the App Store!
Auttomatic Lounge, Pier 38, San Francisco
http://discoverybeat2009.eventbrite.com/

2:30pm – 3:00pm | Registration

3:00pm – 3:05pm | Welcome

3:05pm – 3:15pm | “Make or Break: How to successfully leverage publicity and social media to drive awareness and downloads of mobile apps”

3:15pm – 3:30pm | “Should driving app discovery require hemorrhaging money?”

3:30pm – 3:45pm | “Social Gaming: The evolving technology platform & monetization”

3:45pm – 4:00pm | “Building Social Games: Games at the speed of light”

4:00pm – 4:40pm | “Discovery 1.0: Starting from scratch”

Randy Angle (Director of Game Design, SGN)
Julian Farrior (CEO, Backflip Studios)
Ge Wang (Co-Founder, CTO, & COO, Smule – maker of Ocarina iPhone app)
Peter Farago (VP Marketing, Flurry)
Matt Marshall (Editor in Chief, VentureBeat)

With more than 119,000 apps in the Apple AppStore, discovery is a huge problem. Facebook is just as tough. And to make it worse, you’re at a disadvantage because large networks have the upper hand of experience in platform strategy and a louder voice to get their products heard.
• If you’re a two-person garage development shop and starting from scratch, how do you create an app that can go viral?
• If you’re not a giant company, how do you exploit your newness and focus, using the key ingredients of success?
• How can the smaller developers team up with bigger brands that have name recognition? When should they go it alone?
• How do they build a company that bigger investors will notice?
• What are some of the platform tools at your disposal that can be used to get your apps noticed?
• How does discovery fit with the right business model for your app?

4:40pm – 4:55pm | “Super-sizing the app economy by moving it beyond the iPhone”

4:55pm – 5:35pm | “Discovery 2.0: Moving to the next level”

Sebastien De Halleux (COO, Playfish)
John Pleasants (CEO, Playdom)
Roy Sehgal (GM, Zynga & Executive Producer of Cafe World game)
Neil Young (Founder & CEO, ngmoco)
Dean Takahashi (Lead Writer for GamesBeat, VentureBeat)

The social app companies, those successful application companies that came of age on Facebook and the iPhone, have created their own ecosystems with successful titles that feed on each other. Now what do they do?
• How many different types of monetization schemes do they need? What can they learn from the bigger companies?
• Should they recruit executives from the “old world” companies, to help with partnering or organizational discipline?
• What sort of analytics process should they have in place?
• Can anyone catch up with them?
• What will the social/mobile/gaming look like in two years?

5:35pm – 6:00pm | “Discovery 3.0: Bringing in the big guys”

Jon Vlassopulos (CEO, Moderati – maker of the virtual light Zippo iPhone app)
Alex St. John (President & CTO, hi5)
Michael Chang (Founder & CEO, Greystripe)
Lisa Marino (VP Sales, RockYou)
Roy Bahat (President, IGN Entertainment)

Established video game companies and entertainment giants are eyeing the social networking and mobile platforms as a source of future growth. For success, the big guys need to apply the secret ingredients in different proportions.
• How much should they invest in these areas, and how should they do it?
• Which kinds of partners should they recruit? Which business models are the best?
• Who has made the transition already?
• What’s the right mix of social networking, marketing, analytical measurement, advertising and web design ingredients they should apply?

6:00pm – 6:05pm | Closing remarks

6:05pm – 7:30pm | Reception

Tu 12/8 – W 12/9
AO VENTURE SUMMIT
Rosewood Sand Hill, Menlo Park
http://alwayson.goingon.com/ecom/productview/19291

Tu 12/8

W 12/9

Like a phoenix rising out of the ashes of recent news of music services like Imeem (sold for pennies), Spiralfrog (shutdown) and Spotify (US launch delayed), this week MOG, a music blogging platform, launched All Access, a new, ambitious on-demand service that is, well, pretty cool.

MOG All Access is right upfront about their business model - it costs 5 bucks a month – and they’re very direct about how great the service is too. The homepage says the music service is “Better than Rhapsody, Pandora and iTunes Combined.” Others agree – out of the box it’s getting some great reviews.

MOG All Access says it offers just about every album and song you can imagine – and indeed, I plugged in a bunch of stuff and they had most of it. Curiously, they don’t have Belle & Sebastian or Pousette Dart, a couple of offbeat names I plug in when I’m testing the depth of a service. (Spotify had both, Pandora and Google Music only had Belle & Sebastian). MOG did have Armin Van Buuren, I’m From Barcelona, Donna the Buffalo and other sort of obscure musicians.

The other thing that they have are deals with all four big record labels, as well as many others. In fact, their recent press release included enthusiastic quotes from the big four.

MOG All Access is the only online service that will let you plug in the name of an artist, like James Brown, the example on the video on their site, and then listen to all James Brown music. Other online services won’t give you more than 3 songs by an artist, thanks to performance copyright issues, but obviously, MOG obtained permission in their licensing deals to offer this.

While you’re listening to James Brown you can view all his songs and lyrics, save songs to your locker, build playlists and share them with friends, buy music, or just listen to his complete collection, James Brown Radio. While you’re listening to that, you can decide you want to discover or hear some similar sounding stuff and turn on the music discovery tool.

MOG All Access Founder David Hyman says that although they are offering an easy way for listeners to purchase music, they’re really betting that “consumption in the cloud is the future.” So you store your music in your locker, and listen on whatever connected device is handy – mobile, pc, whatever.

MOG’s got a great platform and it appears that the record companies have given the service not only their blessing but also a unique offering to listeners by enabling them to offer unlimited on-demand access to any music they want. At five bucks a month, they’ll have to get a lot of subscribers to make it work. As I have said about new services before: May they thrive…

Today TechCrunch broke a story on the launch of MOG, an online subscription-based streaming music site similar to Pandora/Rhapsody/Napster etc. MOG is a cool service with tons of potential. It boasts a great interface and excellent sound quality, and I highly recommend signing up for a 1 hour trial. I was very excited to try it out, but after using the service for a few minutes I remembered something…I hate streaming media. I refuse to move my music library to the cloud for one reason- the cloud sucks. 

Can you tell me what the problem is with the picture below?

Only 5 of 12 songs are available for Deerhunter's "Cryptograms" album. The title track is unavailable for Pete's sake. I'm not going to post the results of my Fugazi search (hint: zero). And this is why I hate streaming media: the price of instant access is limited selection. 

I don't mean to pick on MOG. I like their service better than Pandora or Last.FM. Go check out the selection of movies on Hulu or NetFlix Instant Queue. Go ahead, I'll wait…Yeah, pretty bad huh? It's like the damn $5 DVD bin at Walmart.

I will gladly pay a subscription fee for online streaming media. I'll let go of my racks of CDs and drives filled with MP3s and move everything to the cloud. But not as long as the cloud is filled with partial albums and crap movies.

Posted via email from I/O: Tech Introvert

Digital music subscription services aren’t exactly new, but MOG’s approach certainly is. The $5 monthly, all-you-can-eat service we heard about in October is finally live. Was it worth the wait? Let’s just say the short preview I took this morning has my music glands sweating more than John Bonham did after Led Zeppelin concerts in the 70s. MOG offers access to more than 6 million tracks from both indie labels and the big four: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment (s sne), Warner Music Group (s wmg), and EMI Music. The vast music library isn’t the only appealing aspect of this subscription service, however. The best elements from competing services, as well as some features unique to MOG, make the new All Access Pass worth a listen.

Using the online MOG Music Player, you can quickly search for any artist, album or song. Instead of simple results from one search term, MOG returns all relevant bits in one window, making it easy to expand upon the original query. A quick tap and you’re listening to 320kbps of streaming music. But it doesn’t stop there. Upon enjoying your tune, you can move a slider to adjust the rest of your in-progress playlist. Leave it on “Artist Only” to hear what you searched for. Slide it over to “Similar Artists” and you get a Pandora-like playlist in real time. Or set it anywhere between the two options to customize playtime between your favorite artist’s songs and a sprinkling of similar tracks. MOG also adds a social feature with shared playlists. Simply make any of your lists public, and they’ll appear in search results for other MOG users.

At our GigaOM Pro subscription research service, I posed the idea of Amazon offering online music storage and streaming to handsets — after all, the company has all the pieces in place for me to access my digital MP3 library from any of my web-connected devices. MOG appears to support full computers and not handhelds, but it offers an advantage over my Amazon proposal. Any track heard on MOG can be added to “My Library” at the touch of a button — and with all of those songs available, my virtual MOG collection at $60 a year could be far vaster than an Amazon MP3 library built for between $2 and $12 an album.

Michael Arrington has a post praising MOG’s All Access music service. MOG, similar to other online music streaming service, makes thousands if not millions of song readily available on demand over the Internet.

MOG’s $5/month subscription approach appears to be making the recording industry happy…for now.

Besides the usual playlists and searching, one very interesting feature they offer is the ability to use a slider to select how similar artists should be played while in radio mode.

From the CNET article,

“On Monday the company announced it will launch MOG All Access, a new subscription service, on December 2. At $5 a month, the price will match Napster’s, only without the minimum 3-month commitment that Napster requires.”

Although Green Day are not the most requested artist we carry, they are popular with a wide range of ages, their ability to engage the listener with songs written with true feeling, and a talent to deliver outstanding tracks time and time again make them irresistable to the ears of millions of fans around the world.

As a Green Day fan myself, following them through the years, I was lucky enough to see them at the o2 a few weeks ago, this was only my second time seeing them, my first being back in 2005 when they made an outstanding appearance at Milton Keynes. The experience was somewhat amazing, but that’s another story for another day!

The next release from the album ’21st Century Breakdown’ is the title track ’21st Century Breakdown’, a classic Green Day track taking you on a musical journey from start to finish. Billie and the band do not fail to deliver in this amazing track, which features a fantastic quiet verse, loud chorus dynamic. I think this is one of Green Day’s best tracks yet. Dare I say, I detect a hint of Beatles like sound in the album especially in the song ‘Last Night on Earth’. I know they will never replicate the sucess of the Beatles, and nor will they ever capture the full sound of the Beatles, but they certainly aspire to them and I would say the Beatles heavily influenced them at some stage. A feeling which is also felt by the blog Mog http://mog.com/MusicRX/blog/1486061 where you can hear ‘Last Night on Earth’

Check out the video below…

My verdict 9/10 – An excellent tune, with hit written all over it, OK it’s not the stuff we play a lot of, but doesn’t stop us loving it!

A month ago we were criticizing MOG for over promising and under delivering with their new All Access music service. Our chief complaint was that the service wasn’t free, which was the original vision.

Today though, we reported that the odds are against Spotify launching for free in the U.S., and MySpace Music may move to a subscription model. Suddenly, MOG may be right in the thick of things, despite the fact that they will charge $5/month for the service.

So the timing was right today for MOG to release a first teaser video of All Access. This shows off just a part of the service – playlists. But from watching the video it’s clear that they are creating one heck of a user experience. Search looks to be extremely fast, with intelligent auto-complete. Adding songs from various places in the service is simple (compare to MySpace Music, which is still cumbersome after a year). And users can make the playlists private or public.

The social aspect of the service, including public and shareable playlists, is an advantage over Spotify. Spotify is mostly about you and your music, and you aren’t bothered with stuff from other people. But I like the idea of finding new playlists from friends, or that have been made popular by others. I also like that MOG is browser based and doesn’t require a download. I’ve been testing Spotify but only have it on one computer, so I can’t use it all the time.

It’s still way too early to call services like MOG All Access, or the upcoming and still secretive Rdio, a sucess. But users will pay for experience and convenience. I like what I’m seeing so far.

By Michael Arrington

http://www.techcrunch.com

MOG has posted a video demonstrating their new playlist editor for the soon to be released MOG all access.

It looks pretty nifty – lightweight, tag-able, shareable playlists.  It’s nice to see MOG paying attention to playlists.   With millions of songs to chose from, music discovery gets to be a big problem.   Playlists can help with that.   Of course, playlists bring their own discovery problems. How can I discovery new playlists that contain music that I like?   Currently, most sites that support playlists and playlist sharing only provide limited ways for people to discover new playlists. However, as playlists become more ubiquitous, sites like MOG will need to expand the tools for helping people find new and interesting playlists.  Some options for playlist discovery:

• Search for playlists by tag.  Example: “Find playlists tagged ‘emo’ and ‘christmas’”
• Search for playlist by artist / track.  Example: “Find playlists that have songs by Deerhoof”
• Query by example.  Example: “Find playlists that are similar to this playlist”
• Popularity. Example:  “Play me the most popular playlists” or “Play me the Billboard hot 100″
• Social discovery.  Example: “What playlists are my friends listening to now?”
• Expert curated. Example: “Give me the Pitchfork 100 playlist”
• Machine made.  Example: “Build me a playlist that is similar to this playlist” or “Build me a playlist for tags: ‘emo’, ‘female’, ’90s’”
• Recommended playlists. Example: “Find me playlists that I will like based upon my music taste and my context (e.g. the time of day).

It’s good to see MOG working hard to make the creation of playlists easy. Next step is to make finding new and interesting playlists easy.

Dessa vez vamos brincar diferente. Em vez de eu fazer um looongo texto com algumas fotos no meio, agora vai ser um álbum de fotos com comentários que contam a história:

Clica na foto pra ir lá pro album!

MUITO OBRIGADO
a todos que participaram!

\o/

Mais fotos:

• http://picasaweb.google.com.br/marcoandre/20091009LancamentoPiazinho3#
• http://picasaweb.google.com.br/leosos/LancamentoDoLivroExpressoesRegularesUmaAbordagemDivertida#
• http://twitpic.com/kzb9c
• http://twitpic.com/kwck6

Textos em blogs:

• http://www.mcorp.com.br/2009/10/lancamento-do-livro-expressoes-regulares-uma-abordagem-divertida/
• http://www.aondeandei.com.br/2009/10/09/casa-di-bel-lancamento-do-livro-expressoes-regulares/

Music blog network MOG signs numerous labels and unveils plans for “All Access” music service. Articles by…

VentureBeat

Wired

Press Release by PR Newswire

Do you think the chances are of getting stopped twice in two weeks on suspicion of drunk driving are pretty high?  Do you suppose that 2009 wanted to prove to me that it could still F with my life? Is it really possible to be stopped twice in two weeks when your last police experience was in 1997?

The answer to all these questions is Yes.

On Saturday night after watching Texas beat OU (in what can only be described as a painful game) and hanging out with some friends from out-of-town Husband and I headed home. It was 1:30am.  I’m sitting at a light waiting for the left turn signal to turn green. I wait three light cycles and it still doesn’t turn green.  I look over at Husband, look to make sure there are no cars coming in any direction (there aren’t) and I turn left.  The light was still red. It had been red for over 5 minutes at this point.

Thirty seconds later, flashing lights turn on behind me.  And in that moment every curse word available to me went through my head.  Because clearly I was going to get a ticket. I did something completely illegal.  I ran a red light.

So I stop and let me just take a moment to tell you both the cops that have stopped me in the last two weeks (one white, one black) have been extremely polite, well spoken and informative.  Nothing like the overweight abrasive cops that have stopped me in Texas.

I stop. I explain about the three light cycles and that I have not had anything to drink (which I hadn’t, because the cop from two weeks ago scared the crap out of me. I didn’t mention that though.) and he goes back to his car.  Five minutes later he comes back and tells me he appreciates my honesty and he is going to let me go. I then ask his opinion on what to do next time, he gives me answer and it’s done.

But holy crap, people. I got stopped. On the same damn road. On suspicion of drunk driving. Twice.

THE WORLD’S LEADING DESTINATION FOR MUSIC INFORMATION SIGNS DEALS WITH FOUR
MAJOR RECORD LABELS AND LEADING INDEPENDENTS

BERKELEY, Calif., Oct. 14 /PRNewswire/ — MOG, http://mog.com, the Web’s
premier music blogging destination, today announced that it would launch MOG
All Access, an innovative new digital music service for North America, by
Thanksgiving 2009. MOG also announced partnerships with all four major music
labels: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group,
and EMI Music.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091014/SF92199LOGO-a)

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091014/SF92199-b)

“Our goal with MOG All Access was to build the best service for listening to
and discovering music, period,” explained MOG Founder and CEO David Hyman. “To
accomplish this, we’re providing access to millions of songs (just about
everything), with a drop dead easy way to hear any song or album you like in
an instant, from the convenience of your web browser. You’ll get access to
MOG radio, a revolutionary listening experience that will forever change how
you discover music and truly redefines what radio is, and killer tools for
discovery through other users of the service. And you get it all monthly for
the price of a beer. We’re setting the music listening bar.”

Major Label and Indie Support, Deep Music Library, Intuitive Tools
Through partnerships with all major labels including Universal Music Group,
Sony Music, Warner Music Group and EMI Music, plus thousands of independents
via IODA, Beggars Group and more, MOG’s All Access will provide unrestricted
access to over 5 million tracks. MOG will be adding millions more in the
coming months.

“We are delighted to be working with MOG on their All Access Pass,” stated
David Ring, Executive Vice President of Business Development and Business
Affairs for UMG’s eLabs. “David and his team have built a dedicated community
of fully engaged music fans and tastemakers, which will provide us with a
great platform to innovate and deliver new ways for them to explore and enjoy
our content.”

“We welcome the opportunity to expand the reach of our artists online to
include MOG’s enthusiastic music community,” said Michael Paull, Executive
Vice President, Global Digital Business, Sony Music Entertainment. “We think
the model of a comprehensive music experience that offers compelling
programming choices, as well as powerful customization tools and a robust
selection of content for on-demand listening is an attractive option for
consumers.”

“Creating a great online music experience requires not only a large catalog of
easily accessible songs, but also a compelling, easy-to-use platform that
allows fans to discover, share and discuss the music and artists they are
passionate about,” said Michael Nash, Executive Vice President Digital
Strategy and Business Development at Warner Music Group. “MOG ’s All Access
Pass offers fans a fresh and dynamic way to enjoy the music they love and a
terrific way for our artists to reach their fans where they are most engaged.
We look forward to working with MOG to make that user experience the best it
can be.”

“We think the MOG All Access builds upon the existing reputation MOG has built
as a great music discovery experience,” said Mark Piibe, global head of
digital business development, EMI Music. “The service is easy to use, and it
offers fans a real value proposition and gives us a new revenue stream for our
artists.”

A Complete Music Experience
The MOG All Access is a natural extension of The MOG Music Network, the
largest network of music blogs on the web. In addition to having access to
millions of songs, All Access subscribers will be able to learn more about the
music they’re listening to by easily connecting to all sorts of content from
news and reviews to playlists and lyrics.

An Incredible Value
Currently in closed beta testing, the service is expected to be available by
Thanksgiving 2009 and will cost $5 per month. Curious music fans will be able
to sample the service for free.

Hyman explained, “For $5 a month, you can download five songs from iTunes or
have access to millions of songs on demand, better radio, a world of relevant
articles, reviews, news and lyrics, and a community of fellow fans and expert
music sources with whom you can discover new artists, share playlists and
explore music.”

Designed by Music Lovers
MOG was started by David Hyman, former CEO of Gracenote, former SVP-Marketing
at MTV Interactive, co-founder of Addicted to Noise, and self-proclaimed music
junkie. Grammy-winning record producer, Rick Rubin, named by Time Magazine as
one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World,” is a member of MOG’s
Board of Directors.

About MOG — Named one of the top 10 hottest music websites by Wired, MOG
(http://mog.com) is a music blogging platform powered by industry-leading
music discovery technology. Completely free, MOG was founded in June 2005 and
is headquartered in Berkeley, CA. MOG has raised $12.5 million in funding to
date, including strategic investments from Menlo Ventures, Simon Equity,
Universal Music Group and Sony Music. MOG launched its public beta July 2006.
For more information go to http://mog.com.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS109142+14-Oct-2009+PRN20091014

2009 has been a cluster fudge of a year for the Time family. We’ve had stabbings, illness, clients lost, car accidents, the demise of a dream, among many other things that have not made it on to the blog.

So it shouldn’t surprise me that my tea kettle broke today.  The universe knows how to push my buttons. And it succeeded when it broke my favorite and most used kitchen appliance.

Fine.  I wave the white flag. 2009 you win. But don’t come back and think you can improve the next two months and I’ll forget what you did to me for the first 10. You are dead to me. Dead.

2010 I’m putting out the welcome mat.

MOG, che è una comunità virtuale che vanta oltre 8 milioni di utenti sta per lanciare un nuovo servizio di musica digitale (già presi i consueti accordi con major e etichette indie:

Per 5$ al mese si avrà STREAMING ILLIMITATO e 5 download da iTunes.

Il serviziò inizierà negli USA a fine Novembre.

Music blogging site MOG will soon introduce an all-you-can-stream music subscription service, placing it in direct competition with existing services Rhapsody and Napster. Expected to go live by Thanksgiving, the new service — called “All Access” — will provide ad-free streaming from a library of 5 million songs for a monthly fee of $5. An expanded version with a mobile component that includes offline caching will cost more, according to CEO David Hyman, but will still be priced below competing services.

Music subscription services have been historically slow to catch on, with established brands Rhapsody and Napster struggling to reach a million paying customers despite several years of trying. More recently, though, the arrival of mobile applications and the promise of on-demand access to any song, anytime, anywhere has helped stimulate consumer interest in subscriptions — and presented a potential threat to iTunes’ dominance. But while consumers are still experimenting with the model, it’s possible that a tipping point is near, especially with European free-streaming site Spotify expected to unveil a competing model in the U.S. within months as well.

In an interview, Hyman was fairly cagey about what the new service will look like, but confirmed that all four majors and numerous independents are on board, including MOG stakeholders Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. The $5-per-month price point echoes Hyman’s February 2008 blog post concerning the future of the industry in which he expressed doubt that free ad-supported models would be sustainable but described MOG’s pricing as “as low as we can go toward free.”

MOG’s entry will gives consumers a new option among several comparable, but not identical, models. Best Buy-owned Napster is priced competitively at about $5-$7 monthly depending on commitment, and throws in a handful of MP3 downloads each month, but hasn’t yet introduced a mobile streaming service. RealNetworks’ Rhapsody is the first major U.S. service to provide on-demand mobile streams, at a monthly cost of $15. Spotify offers free desktop streaming supported by ads, but it costs about $15 monthly to extend to the mobile sphere and eliminate the ads, and the service may look different when it arrives in the U.S.

Hyman said the user interface of MOG’s upcoming service is probably its most crucial differentiator, although he declined to give more details about it except to say that it’s entirely browser-based (for now) and will offer higher-quality streams (256Kbps and up). An “innovative free trial” will be conducted soon, he said, and the mobile component will be introduced by year’s end.

MOG has raised $17.5 million to date, with Menlo Ventures leading a recent $5 million round along with Simon Equity Partners and Scott Jones. The company’s existing blog business segment isn’t profitable yet, but if MOG can capitalize on the trend toward streaming by capturing a meaningful share of the subscription market, it won’t have to be.

Before Saturday night I had been stopped while driving by the police twice. The first time I was stopped it was for not putting on my lights properly (I only turned the knob once and you had to turn it twice for regular lights. And no, I have no idea what the technical car term would be for that). I had been driving for all of two months when I got stopped and my dad was in the car behind me. The second time for doing 67 in a 65 mph in some small town between Houston and San Antonio.

So Saturday Husband and I are returning from dinner (sushi at a Malaysian place which is the best you can find in Charlotte — trust me we’ve tried them all) and the car needs gas so we stop. We pull out of the brightly lit station and within about 10 seconds I realize I don’t have my lights on and 10 seconds later I see siren lights on behind me.

Husband immediately is looking at the speedometer to see if I’m speeding,which I’m not. So I pull over and have Husband pull out my wallet and the registration. At this point I’m really nervous because I haven’t been pulled over in twelve years.

Ma’am, do you have your license and registration? (pointing a flashlight into my eyes)

Yes, here it is. (ohmygod, ohmygod. thank goodness I didn’t order that tropical looking cocktail the next table over ordered)

I pulled you over because you didn’t have your lights on.

I’m really sorry officer. I just pulled out of the Exxon station (gesticulating wildly to my full tank gage) and the lights were so bright there that I didn’t realize my lights weren’t on. (dude I hope I don’t get a ticket. I’m going to have to take defensive driving. Defensive driving totally sucks).

Husband jumped in here to say the same exact thing, which was completely unneccessary and made me look guilty, like hey we agreed on a story before we opened the window.

Well, we are checking for drunk drivers this evening.

Oh, I haven’t been drinking officer. ( I shouldn’t have said that because who is going to believe a person who says they haven’t been drinking. Please let him believe me. Maybe I should tell him that Husband has been drinking.)

I know. You have a nice evening and drive safely.

Thanks officer. (I wonder how he knows? Do they teach this in police officer school. Was he checking to see if my eyes dilated or something?)

I have no idea how he knew I hadn’t been drinking but I’m glad I didn’t have to walk in a straight line because I was nervous enough to have failed.  He was very nice though and now for another thirteen years I probably won’t forget to turn on my lights.

So we are watching TV and an Amber Alert message starts flashing. Husband and I wait for the message to come on and the report was for a 5′1, 12-year-old girl, weighing 128lbs, clothing unknown but she is pregnant.  Nine months pregnant.

NINE. MONTHS. PREGNANT. TWELVE.

12. That’s what? Sixth grade?

Husband pointed out that when this girl is my age her child will be graduating from high school.  You’ve got to love Husband and his math skills.

Fucked Up band members courtesy of the Canadian Press

Interview:

INDY: With the growing popularity of the band is there any influence to change or conform to reach an even broader audience? For example, changing the name of the band or changing your onstage antics?

Mr. Damian: When the band first started we never dreamed that we would have to worry about how we would have to say our name on TV or the Radio. That was not even in the realm of possibility. We are the band that are going to be playing basement shows so when people ask us if we are worried our name is going to hold us back we are like, well no none of this is suppose to happen to us. Although our hometown of Toronto is a big city, up until recently, hardcore and punk rock was a very marginal scene. It (hardcore/punk rock) was just growing up at the time and a huge show would be like an American band would come through and there were be like 300-500 kids there but then a local show, there would be like 25-30 people there. So, it was never considered by the band that we would have any mainstream attention. We don’t feel that our name is holding us back because none of this is suppose to happen so everything we are doing, by extension, is a gift. That being said, we are playing the Polaris Prize Award 2009 this Monday, which is like the Canadian Mercury Prize, and we have a really bad reputation with the sponsor of the show, MTV in Canada.

INDY: Was that reputation due to the MTV Live Bathroom experience that was posted to MOG some months back (by me actually) but has now been removed from the net?

Mr. Damian:: Yes, the video and the band were banned from the media via MTV Canada. There were interests within MTV Canada that saw that they could exploit the energy of the kids there and it would make good television. Well, it went too far on that particular show in their opinion. We were fined for the behaviour that occurred on that set and banned. However, the upcoming Polaris Prize awards are taking place at MTV Canada. They have had to lift the ban in order to allow us to play in the show as well as we are a nominee for the Polaris Prize Award. So they want us to come back and play and have a police escort the whole time to make sure we don’t do anything….

INDY: So, is there anything new coming up tonight? (for MFNW) and are you working on any new material?

Mr. Damian: No, its going to be all about the last record as this is the tail end of it. We are working on new material. We are doing a song with Chism from the Wu-Tang Clan. We are writing a song for them. We are doing a song with a split with King Khan and BBQ.

INDY: We hear the band has a manager that never comes to the shows?

Mr. Damian: Oh yes, David Elliad. He may or may not be real. We lucked out early on and realized it’s good to have someone to make the tough decisions even if that person is not real. So, when someone calls to ask you to do something, its not you that says “No”, it’s David Elliad.

INDY: What do you think of the changing music industry?, ie many
bands are now self managing and albums are free or dirt cheap.

Mr. Damian: Yes, many bands in Canada, for instance, will sign to a label in America, and then they just do a distribution deal with another label in Canada but they start their own imprint. Ya, its like its really changed, for a band like us, the music industry, although not shrinking, but things are getting smaller as far as sales and how big a band can be. And, because of that, smaller bands like us, are starting to appear slightly bigger. We have definitely benefited by that contraction in the industry. I don’t think we would have ever received the same amount of attention if it wasn’t for that. I mean I am 30 years old and I lack all musical ability. If you put a gun to my head and told me to play “Smoke on the Water” on that guitar you’d have to blow my brains out because I do not know how to do that. I can not do the simplest thing (musically) but I can be in a band. I’m living proof you do not need any ability to play in a band.

INDY: So, you were not the front man originally in this band?

Mr. Damian:No, Josh our guitarist was. He played two shows, then he decided to do some train hopping across America and during that time I was asked to fill in for him for two shows and it worked out. Josh came back and he was asked to play guitar. We’ve done shows without every member of Fucked Up, we can exist without someone not being there but if someone left the band we would fall apart. We don’t get along. We know each other but we certainly don’t hang out with each other. Jonah and I, and the band were talking one time, and you have these bands like the Clash and the Rolling Stones who say they are a gang, you know, this gang mentality in a band. We’re not. We’re “conscripted soldiers”. We don’t want to be here, we want to be at home, but we have been called into battle, so we are going to fight this war.

INDY: Can you describe your music for me? Would you say that it’s hardcore with classical undertones using instruments like the violin?

Mr. Damian:I believe it is definitely still Punk, sonically there are elements of hardcore. Hardcore is one of those things that is defined by others. You are “other-ed” into hardcore. I think we are still a hardcore band, I love hardcore. I think the band stands the way it is today is because it is six people that have very different tastes in music all trying to make the same band work. So that means that someone who is into Techno brings a different approach then someone like me who is into like the Circle Jerks or Jonah who is into like some obscure 60’s band.

INDY: So, any bands in the MFNW you have seen or would like to see?

Mr. Damian: Well, we just flew in (this was Saturday – festival started on Wed night) so we haven’t been able to see any yet but right off the top of my head, there’s this band, Despise You playing and they have done only six or seven shows ever and I have been a big fan, I remember buying their Discography CD, in 1998. I probably got their first record in 1996 so that is like thirteen years and I’m finally going to get to see them tonight. I remember reading about them and pouring over their lyrics. I’ve always thought they have has such a cool aesthetic. I never thought I’d see them and here I am in Portland thirteen years later getting to see them. I also want to see Team Dresch tonight, Trash Talk, who are friends of ours I’d like to see tonight. Actually, El Mariachi Bronx, I want to see tonight. I really like the record and really want to see them play. I’ve never seen them play live. Titus Andronicus, I’d really like to see, and Riverboat Gamblers, and Effect Defect.

INDY: Those are bands that were not on my “dream schedule” but hey, they might be ones I’d like? I went to see Sunny Day Real Estate, and before last night, I didn’t know much about them. They were a big discovery for me.

Mr. Damian:Ye, the drummer from SDRE, used to play in a band called Brotherhood. Also, the dude from Foo Fighters (SDRE bass guitarist), was in Brotherhood. Brotherhood broke up and these two guys started SDRE. But Brotherhood was such a huge influence on me when I was a kid in high school. I wish I could of gotten to meet them. That’s the thing about these types of festivals, there are millions of different types of bands and there are millions of different types of people. And every single band here has a person who thinks, this is my favorite band. Last night I would have loved to see Mudhoney, Pink Mountaintops, the Zero’s, Softpack, Bad Brains, Japanther, or The Arctic Monkeys. It’s great when you play at festivals like this but it’s bitter sweet that there is so many bands you want to see but you know you’re going to miss seeing some of them.

INDY: I am really looking forward to seeing you tonight and was hoping to take some photos, will that be an issue?

Mr. Damian:No not at all, I think bands should help people love them. So many bands seem to get in the way of liking the band. It’s ridiculous. Talk about David Elliad, our manager, bands deliberately put people up as obstacles to separate the band from the people who like the band and I don’t think it should be like that. The band is the kid watching the show, and that kid watching the show could be in the band the next week, you know? That’s the one thing that came out of Punk that I believe should carry over to all music. Maybe not sonically, I mean I don’t think every band should sound like Punk, but I think that ideology that its cheap, its easy, go start your own band- I think ‘that’ can be applied to any form of music from heavy metal to rap to soul music.

INDY: Personally, growing up in the 70’s I liked bands like The Who but you would never think that you could approach them they were like Gods, this incredible mystique surrounded them.

Mr. Damian:As much as I like the rock and roll bands musically during that time, that path that rock and roll took during that time drives me nuts, that was kinda the birth of the superstar. The rock star is God, the “Kiss” mentality and I hate that. What got me into music and what I prefer is to be able to meet the band being like a normal person that wanted to make some noise and that is what music should be. I think it should be anyone and everyone should do it, or rather can do it ya know?

INDY: I know exactly what you mean. In my experience as primary blogger on You Are the Music (YATM) blog we seek out those type of bands who have passion, no matter what type of band, or what they are called, or what genre they fall into or don’t, what matters is their passion and intensity, and how they connect with their audiences.

Mr. Damian:Yes, and I think so much of music industry is about stripping that passion away and turning it into this antiseptic, boring thing. It’s like the band’s managers and agents, etc. think, well, if the band does the same performance every night, we know they will be consistently average. And granted, if a band doesn’t do that, some nights they might be bad, but at least they will be honestly bad, and some nights it will be “unbelievable”. It seems that they try to make them, the bands, not human, but an industry unto itself. When that happens, it loses its excitement.

INDY: Well, I see the you are about to go onstage. I’d like to thank you for your generosity and time and for sharing your thoughts, insights, and ideas about music and the band, Fucked Up.

Update (9/21/09) As Damian mentioned in our discussion, the ban from MTV Canada was lifted and his band got the opportunity to perform at the 2009 Polaris Prize ceremonies at MTV Canada’s studio.
Not only did they play, they walked off with the 2009 Polaris Prize!
Well Done Fucked Up…

Damian Abraham, Fucked Up Frontman, @ MFNW Nike Lounge prior to the band's performance

Front man for Fucked Up claims he has no musical abilities

Fucked Up @ MFNW Sat 9/19/09

Damien, getting into his groove with the audience

Friendly neighbor from downstairs just came up and brought food.

Worse, she said she knocked earlier and no one answered but then she heard us stomping around upstairs so she came back up. Husband had come home five minutes earlier. I think we now know who the person is who walks around the apartment stomping like a 500 lb hippo on steroids.

This whole neighbor who brings food yet you pay to do your eyebrows thing is very awkward. I’m guessing Miss Manners doesn’t have an entry for that one.

This is a major point of contention between Husband and I.

Yesterday, Husband dropped his contact holder thing-y in the toilet (it is one of those contact cases where the lid screws off and you put the contacts in holders and then screw the whole thing back together — don’t ask me what it is called I have no idea).

I say we should buy a new one.

Husband says we can boil it in hot water and it will be fine. And didn’t I clean the toilet yesterday?

Yes, yes I did clean the toilet yesterday and still between yesterday and the time the contact case dropped in the toilet things occurred in that toilet that should never be near your eye. Not even the microscopic molecule that might survive a boiling. Pink eye! Venereal Eye Disease! Plus it doesn’t cost that much to replace it.

Husband says, but it costs more than a dollar to replace it.

People of the internet, thoughts?

Perhaps the rule should now be that not only must you put the seat down on the toilet you must also put down the lid.

The people with the wind chimes have moved in downstairs. They brought their wind chimes. And it just so happens that the wife in the family of chimes is my eye brow lady.  They moved from their third floor apartment across the way to a first floor apartment underneath us because the people below them complained that they  were stomping on the floor loudly.

On my way out today I saw her and she mentioned that they had heard some stomping from us. We don’t stomp…well except when we are practicing our stilt walking act that we are hoping Barnum & Bailey is going to pick up. Everyone needs a back up job, right?

This is going to be a disaster. Especially since they keep all their windows and doors open (even in the summer) so she sees me when I leave my apartment to go anywhere.  I don’t want to have to make small talk every time I leave the apartment.  I don’t like small talk.

Apparently I don’t like friendly neighbors either.