Telstra launching streaming music service for all Australians

If you thought streaming music services were a passing fad, think again. Telstra is joining forces with US music giant MOG to bring its own streaming music service to Australia.

Streaming music services aren’t exactly hard to find right now, with Samsung, Sony, Rdio and soon Spotify to name just a few already in the Aussie market. Telstra joining them does nothing more than prove there is a strong business case.

Telstra claim the service will have 15 million songs available to consumers via mobile, tablet, computer or smart TV through their partnership with MOG.

Still some months away, the announcement today is an important step in putting questions in the mind of consumers who might have short term trials of other services underway or are anticipating the launch of Spotify which has recently been delayed in Australia.

Telstra’s Executive Director of Media, Applications and User Experience, J-B Rousselot commented, in the release that the partnership “was the first of its kind in Australia and a big win for Australian music lovers.” I’m not quite sure what makes this a first for Australians but only time will tell. A service like this will be judged on the quantity of content because that is where existing services are lacking.

What Telstra can offer that others can’t is unmetered data. That means access to a huge library of music on your computer, mobile or TV with no data charges if you are a Telstra customer.

Telstra is boasting about the superiority of its network making this the best music experience – that’s a compelling claim which will be worth testing. Anyone who has used streaming music services will know about the frustrations of slow song starts or long breaks between songs.

Most concerning of all is how ‘funky’ Telstra have become – when asked ‘why MOG?’, Telstra told EFTM, “We looked at all potential partners worldwide and fell in love with MOG’s easy to user interface and its high quality audio streaming rate.

“MOG makes it so easy to find the music you love and more importantly recommends new albums to you every day based on your listening habits. It’s the digital equivalent of walking into the old record store where the guy behind the counter knows your tastes and suggests a few new albums to you.”

Not a bad response from that big brand people seem to love to hate.

Key to the MOG/Telstra offer is the quality of the stream. MOG streams music at 320kbps, which should mean great sound, but if you’re on a bad connection it could mean a poor experience, so it’s a risk!

Plenty doubted Telstra’s ability to deliver to the PVR/IPTV market with T-Box and were proven wrong with plenty of them in homes, so don’t underplay Telstra’s ability to win consumers over with brand and a big marketing spend in the streaming music market in the year or so ahead.

No pricing is available yet, so we can’t make a judgement or recommendation right now – time will tell.