MOG relaunches user interface

MOG launched a new version of its site today, including a new user interface, design and minute by minute hand curated homepage (http://mog.com). You can read a full account in the press release below.

Or you can read the Techcrunch review that just hit the presses: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/15/mog-gets-an-overhaul-looks-to-become-definitive-music-news-portal/

One highlight to mention is the new, 24/7-updated homepage modules; here, our editorial staff, now with full automated access to affiliate posts, will feature content in relevant modules, whether its album reviews, hot news items, striking thematic pieces and other creative headlines. With these homepage module features, your posts will be exposed to MOG’s audience of over 5.7 million music lovers.

But just as important, we’ve created new account integrations that will make it remarkably easier for affiliates to engage MOG. For example, now you can manage and self-tag your own posts; as you know, tagging maps the posts to our artist and album lounges. Our staff will continue to tag the posts, but in case you wanted to control the tagging, you can now do so. This feature is just one among many (which I’ll summarize below).

Last, I’ll mention that we’ve introduced state-of-the-art algorithms that hyper-feature content across each MOG channel – posts move up the chain according to the writer’s level of popularity on MOG, whether it’s through commenting, readership, clicks or other measures of engagement. The more you engage MOG, the more likely it is your posts will be designated as “recently popular”.

Here’s an overview of the new MNN-focused features:

1. Manage your trusted MOGs/blogs
2. Track your comments
3. Control email preferences
4. Edit and tag your posts
5. Get notifications
6. Access MOG 101 guide
7. “Recently popular” algorithm
8. 24/7-updated thematic homepage modules: affiliate content programmatically integrated!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions,

MOG Gets Extreme Makeover

Cleaner, smarter interface and improved filtering tools make MOG your new home page for music content online.

Berkeley, CA—April 15, 2009— Starting today, visitors to MOG (http://mog.com), the Web’s premier music blogging network, will find a completely revamped user interface and design, making it the easiest and richest destination online for discovering the latest and greatest in music.

“With this redesign, music lovers have a new home page for music content online. The new MOG is as dynamic and rich as a site like the Huffington Post, but completely devoted to music,” explained David Hyman, MOG founder and CEO. “Over 5000 blog posts a week funnel through the MOG Music Network and are edited down to create the Web's best destination for daily music content. In addition, our new pages for artists, albums and songs are the editorially-driven equivalent of Wikipedia pages.”

Visitors to the new MOG homepage will instantly experience the improved utility and design of MOG, including:

• • Daily Music News: Nothing online comes close to the depth and breadth of MOG’s daily music news coverage with over 80 blog posts per hour flowing through the site during peak hours. 24/7, MOG’s editors extract the top music news stories from music experts and make them accessible front-and-center via the new home page.
• • Featured Stories: Everyday, MOG editors curate the biggest stories of the day along with related articles from a collection of thousands of daily blog posts, so you can delve deeper into a subject, or hear a variety of alternate perspectives.
• • Essential Tracks: MOGs editorial staff surfaces new, rare, and exclusive streaming MP3s, all day, every day.
• • Hype Factor: Learn about the albums and artists that are being talked about most on MOG – and read multiple perspectives from multiple authors, all in one spot. Explore conflicting view points, soaring accolades, or find out which releases are widely panned.
• • Thematic Areas: Music festival coverage, Internet memes, industry coverage, or other content groupings curated by the MOG editors will be rotated throughout the day and week.

Site visitors will also notice a marked improvement to the design and organization of all MOG pages devoted to individual artists, albums and songs, including:

• • New “recently popular” algorithms surface the best recent news, reviews and blog posts
• • Photo galleries for artists, with direct access for users to upload more photos to the already expansive catalog
• • Light-weight, better discographies. Find the releases you want – sorted by rating, date or title
• • Fully-integrated lyrics on MOG song pages

To ensure Moggers never miss a beat, MOG provides personalized feeds to only the music and editorial they care about:

• • Subscribe to an artist and MOG will surface all news posts tagged with that artist
• • Receive notifications whenever a specified artist releases an album or new tracks
• • Get weekly recommendations based on listening history – discover new music and people who share your musical taste
• • Never miss a post by “Trusted Moggers”, or from favorite blogs in the MOG Music Network
• • New, fully customizable RSS feeds allow users to filter content by genre, source, and/or popularity and receive it directly to Google Reader, MyYahoo, or any other RSS reader.

Anyone can access MOG’s content for free. A free account is required to contribute content to the site. To set up an account and read the hottest music news, go to http://mog.com.

Music bloggers and websites interested in joining MOG Music Network can find additional information at http://mog.com/mmn.

Electronic Arts, Universal Pictures and Converse have signed on as relaunch sponsors.

About MOG

The Web’s premier music blogging network, MOG -- http://mog.com -- is the place to get the music content you crave. MOG generates over 6,000 music blog posts per week from music lovers and the top 300 music blogs that make up MOG Music Network. These posts are all hand-curated, resulting in the Web's best daily music destination. MOG makes it easy to dig deep and find up-to-date information on your favorite artists, albums, or songs by searching an archive of hundreds of thousands of blog posts. Sign up for MOG and get personalized music recommendations and news feeds. Subscribe to favorite artists on MOG and get instant updates. And if you've got something to say, come say it where 5.5 million music lovers per month will hear you. For more information go to http://mog.com.