MOG joins the subscription-music fray

There must be something compelling about the subscription-music business model that the public just hasn't grasped yet. No matter how many companies give up on it because they can't attract enough subscribers, new ones always arrive to try to make it work.

The latest is MOG, which launched a $5-per-month version today. I've lost count, but I think we're now on the fourth iteration of MOG -- it started as a music-blogging outpost, then added music videos, then integrated Rhapsody to allow a limited number of free songs on demand. Now, after a long delay (the all-too-familiar cause: licensing issues with the major labels), MOG is rolling out a subscription layer that adds unlimited streams on demand, personalized radio and a rich trove of user-generated playlists.

The price puts it in line with Napster's listen-only offering, although Napster also lets users download an MP3 for every dollar they spend on subscription fees. In other words, Napster treats the streams as a free throw-in to an eMusic-like subscription downloading service. (Another good analogy: Netflix.) Armed with a library that's similar to its competitors, MOG is betting on the strength of the content generated by its staff and users, which turn the site into a one-stop shop for music news, reviews, commentary, social networking *and* listening. The integration of crowd-sourced playlists and blogs give MOG more powerful music-discovery tools than other services provide as well as more (and more unique) content than its rivals.

Yet the question lingers: Are people willing to pay for access to music, especially when there's so much available free (e.g., Grooveshark, Imeem, MySpace Music, Lala, Slacker -- and that's not counting  unauthorized sources)? I've been a fan of subscription services for a long time. On the other hand, I'm a voracious consumer of music -- especially when it's being created by someone I've never heard of before. That makes me well-suited for a service like Napster or the new MOG, but not terribly representative of most consumers. Said consumers tend to have one giant problem with subscription services, aside from the sense of getting nothing permanent in return for their money: They don't work on iPods. (Rhapsody, at least, works on an iPhone.) All the same, MOG's announcement reinforces Napster's bet that $5 a month is the new price point for subscriptions, not $13 to 15 (a la Rhapsody or Zune Pass). And that's much less of a leap for consumers to take, even if their musical appetites aren't as large as mine.

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division. Follow him on Twitter: @jcahealey

A new feature for Blu-ray discs: conventional DVD movies [UPDATED]

Matt Damon stars in the action-filled 2007 sequel "The Bourne Ultimatum,"  one of three movies in the "Bourne" trilogy that will be available on the new "flipper" discs. Credit: Jason Boland/Universal.

Any movie buff with a Blu-ray player and young children knows this dilemma: When a movie you love comes out on disc, do you buy it in the Blu-ray format for the sake of your big-screen living-room TV, or do you buy it as a conventional DVD so it will work on your portable, your laptop and the back-seat DVD player in your SUV? The lack of backward compatibility is one of the central challenges for Blu-ray discs, a format the public has been relatively slow to embrace (although disc sales have been growing rapidly).

Today, Universal Studios announced what seems like an elegant solution: two-sided discs with Blu-ray on the front and conventional DVD on the flip. It's starting with the three movies in the "Bourne" trilogy, arguably the greatest series Matt Damon has made. No information yet on what the discs will sell for, and alas, they won't be available for the holidays or as a package -- each of the three discs will hit the shelves Jan. 19. The Blu-ray side will be full-featured, supporting BD-Live and other Blu-ray niftiness.

Updated, 11:04 a.m.: The suggested retail price will be $29.98, which is what Universal suggests for many of its Blu-ray-only titles. In other words, the studio doesn't seem to be setting a premium price for "flipper" discs beyond what it already commands for Blu-ray.

Universal previously had offered hybrid HD-DVD and DVD discs, back when Universal was in the ill-fated HD-DVD camp, so this latest step is a welcome extension of that effort.

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division. Follow him on Twitter: @jcahealey

10 favorite gadgets of 2009

If you're still looking for a gift, the Times' Technology staff has compiled a list of our 10 favorite gadgets of 2009. Check out the full list, with details.

Vudu does Wikipedia

Microsoft's WebTV service proved pretty conclusively that the masses don't want to surf the Web on their TVs. They want to watch videos, not browse for bargains on Craigslist. Technologies that integrate Web content into TV programming, on the other hand, seem much more promising. Vudu, which delivers movies on demand through the Internet to TV sets, is launching one example today, adding content streamed from Wikipedia to its program guide. 

It's a pretty simple idea. When Vudu users steer their TV sets to one of Vudu's "movie details" screens, they see a brief description of the film in question along with links to more information about the cast, reviews and similar titles. Today, Vudu is adding a new link that will take viewers to the relevant page in Wikipedia. 

There's some technological niftiness involved -- for example, the links inside the Wikipedia pages will be live, enabling people to navigate around the site as if they were using a browser. And any reference in Wikipedia to an actor, director or movie that's in Vudu's database will include links to movies in the Vudu service.

The addition of Wikipedia content is a baby step in the direction of integrated Web content, but it shows off one of the advantages of Vudu streaming its user interface to devices, rather than having it baked into the set-top box. That approach enables the company to update the features of its software in a way that's consistent across all devices, whether they are dedicated Vudu set-tops or multi-purpose devices running Vudu's software. Umm, but there's a catch -- this feature will reach the multi-purpose devices today, but the Vudu set-tops will have to wait for it.

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division. Follow him on Twitter: @jcahealey

Roku's open TV platform

Roku's $99 set-top box made its debut last year as a tool for watching Netflix's online movie streams on a television set. It later added access to Amazon's video-on-demand service and Major League Baseball's online game broadcasts. Today it announced the latest step in its evolution into a more versatile device: a "channel store" of optional video sources for users to add to their boxes.

The store is an open platform, Roku says, providing a route to the TV set for any online video programmer willing to use Roku's software development kit. That's a promising development for content providers looking to bypass cable and satellite operators. Unfortunately, the first 10 channels available through the Roku store do not include Hulu, TV.com, Sling.com or any other source of network TV shows. Instead, they consist of a handful of sites with original online video, such as Revision3; Pandora's customized music webcasts; and sites for posting and sharing photos and home videos, such as Flickr. All are free to use and easy to add to the box's regular channel lineup, although some require viewers to register.

The biggest shortcoming is the lack of a search engine or program guide that would make it easy to browse across all the channels simultaneously. Users have to scroll through what's available channel by channel, which can be tedious.

Viewers looking for something to replace their cable TV won't find it from Roku -- at least not yet. What they'll find is a broader selection of content, a convenient way to display on TV the personal photos and videos they've stored online, and the promise of more to come.

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division.

The darker side of California's new TV wattage limits

The California Energy Commission unanimously approved a regulation today capping the power consumption of televisions sold in California starting in 2011. Although the Consumer Electronics Assn., which represents the world's largest TV makers, was apoplectic about the action, The Times' Marc Lifsher reports that one faction -- the LCD TV Assn. -- was all smiles. The reason? LCD sets are less power-hungry than plasma TVs. In other words, as so often happens when the government regulates products, it favors one technology over another -- and manufacturers know it, even if the regulators insist otherwise.

One other interesting sidelight: Seth Greenstein, outside counsel for the CEA, said the rules would bar many hotels and hospitals from buying televisions because such centrally controlled sets can't meet the new limits on power consumption when they're turned off. Philips Electronics warned the commission about this issue, to no apparent avail.

Read more about the possible unintended consequences of the new rule at the Times' opinion blog, Opinion L.A.

Corrected, 4:31 p.m.: In my haste, I incorrectly identified Seth Greenstein as Seth Greenspan in the original version of this post.

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division. Follow him on Twitter: @jcahealey

Guvera, a place for advertisers to give away music

After SpiralFrog's collapse and Qtrax's repeated misfires, I'm skeptical about any online music service that says it will give away advertiser-supported downloads. But Guvera, an Australian start-up launched by former advertising executive Claes Loberg, is different enough to make me think it might actually work.

Admittedly, I also liked Uplister, Echo and dozens of other ill-fated online music services. But Guvera, which is expected to announce a licensing deal this morning with Universal Music Group, has at least one thing going for it that SpiralFrog didn't and Qtrax has yet to demonstrate: a model that's friendly not just to consumers, but also to advertisers.

Radio and TV broadcasters on the defensive in D.C.

The Consumer Electronics Assn. and the CTIA (the main trade group for the mobile phone industry) urged the Federal Communications Commission today to consider reclaiming some digital TV airwaves and dedicating them to use with wireless devices. The chief executives of the CEA and CTIA sent a joint letter to members of the FCC, reminding them that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 required the commission to review how the digital TV airwaves were being used within 10 years of the first licenses being granted for DTV channels. Those licenses were issued nearly 11 years ago, so a review is technically overdue (not that deadlines seem to matter much in Washington). Said review is supposed to determine whether broadcasters could get by with less spectrum as well as evaluate alternative uses. According to the CEA-CTIA letter:

This spectrum is uniquely suited for mobile broadband applications, devices and services –
it has highly favorable propagation characteristics and is directly adjacent to the 700 and
800 MHz spectrum utilized by the commercial wireless industry. We therefore urge the
commission to take immediate action to initiate the congressionally-mandated evaluation
of broadcast television spectrum usage.

The DTV channels are extremely valuable, and broadcasters have tried for several years to find ways to use them for more than just high-definition TV signals -- for example, by transmitting a version of their programs that's customized for mobile devices, or leasing part of their channel to data service providers. They've also fiercely resisted the high-tech industry's push to allow unlicensed uses of empty TV channels -- the so-called white spaces -- in areas where it might interfere with local broadcasts. (The FCC sided with the tech firms last year, but the decision is under appeal.) But the FCC is under orders from Congress to develop a national plan for increasing the supply of broadband connectivity, and Chairman Julius Genachowski has said that the demand for wireless broadband will soon be an order of magnitude greater than the supply (a situation that Genachowski has called the "looming spectrum crisis"). So the commission may be unusually receptive to the idea of forcing TV stations to share more of their spectrum wealth.

But then, the National Assn. of Broadcasters has some powerful friends on Capitol Hill. Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), former chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and still a formidable player, sent a letter to the FCC yesterday expressing concern about any move to devote digital TV airwaves to other uses. Quoth Dingell: "I believe that a further loss of spectrum by broadcasters may have an adverse effect on consumers by limiting their choice in available broadcast television."

Meanwhile, NAB officials started meeting in the Capitol today with representatives of the Recording Industry Assn. of America and musicians' unions to discuss a compromise approach to performance royalties -- which the NAB refers to as a performance tax on radio stations -- under the auspices of the chairmen and senior members of the House and Senate Judiciary committees. Members of the Democratic leadership are expected to drop by the sessions, raising the heat on the NAB to capitulate. Although the broadcasters' lobby has lined up 252 House members and 27 senators behind resolutions opposing new royalties for performing music publicly (on the air or at a business, such as a bar), both Judiciary committees have passed bills that would have a federal arbitration panel set royalties that local radio stations would have to pay. The bills also would set limits on the annual royalty payments for smaller businesses, public and religious broadcasters.

Looks like the broadcasters' lobbyists will be stuck playing defense for a while.

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division. Follow him on Twitter: @jcahealey

Sezmi says hello to Los Angeles

Angelenos unhappy with the cable or satellite TV offerings in their neighborhoods will have a new, much less expensive option today: Sezmi, a novel combination of over-the-air broadcasting and broadband programming. The company is launching a trial run here in anticipation of a much broader rollout by March, providing free equipment and service for about three months to those who participate. (You can sign up at Sezmi's website.) Even after the free trial ends, the price will be far below competing pay TV services: just under $5 a month for local broadcasts, Internet channels and access to pay-per-view services, and an additional $20 a month for more than 100 cable TV networks. Sezmi has some issues -- some popular cable networks aren't on board, at least not yet, and its selection of Web programming is far too limited -- but it also offers some innovations that push TV service in the direction viewers want it to go.

Clicker's guide to the unlimited-channel universe

One testament to the popularity of online video is the growing number of sites that serve as Internet program guides, helping people sort through the billions of available items to find something they might like to watch. The latest, Clicker, has its official launch at 10:30 this morning (it had been conducting an invitation-only trial since mid-September). Unlike most of the other guides, which direct users to videos available on their own sites, Clicker exists to help people find programming around the Web, including such sources as Hulu, YouTube or Revision3. And it directs users to legal content only, eschewing bootlegs and snippets posted on user-generated sites in favor of full-length content from the most convenient source. The goal, said CEO Jim Lanzone, is to be "the TV Guide for the next generation of television, whatever that evolves into."