Telstra behind MOG music streaming in Aus

Telstra has announced that it has partnered with US music-streaming service MOG to bring the service to Australia "in the coming months".

The service is subscription based, and will cost "less than the price of a CD each month", according to a statement by Telstra's JB Rousselot. As well as streaming music to devices over the web, MOG allows its customers to download songs and listen to them when offline. The MOG music catalogue has 15 million tracks in the US, with each track streamed at 320Kpbs.

Interestingly, Telstra's announcement made specific reference to the service being network agnostic, a first for any content service available through any of Australia's major telcos. Telstra and competitors Optus and Vodafone have all invested heavily in creating unique content offerings, from music and video streaming to apps, all designed to attract and retain customers. MOG powered by Telstra, however, will be available to anyone in Australia.

This new service will launch in a difficult time, though, with the market for music streaming become more congested this year. Major international music-streaming service Spotify is also expected to launch in Australia in the coming month, and will add to a list of about a dozen similar offerings already available, with similar features and competitive pricing.