Beats headphone maker buys MOG music service

LOS ANGELES — Upscale headphone maker Beats Electronics is buying MOG, a music subscription service that has struggled to compete with rivals such as Rhapsody and Spotify.

Beats is the parent company of the “Beats by Dr. Dre” line of headphones. It was founded by rapper and producer Dr. Dre and Interscope Geffen A&M Records Chairman Jimmy Iovine in 2008 in Santa Monica, Calif.

Taiwanese cellphone maker HTC said in August that it was buying a 51 percent stake in Beats for $300 million.

The combination announced by Beats on Monday suggests that MOG’s music service could be integrated with Beats in its various businesses, which include speakers, mobile phones, personal computers and car stereos.

“With their talent and technology, the possibilities around future innovation are endless,” Beats President Luke Wood said in a statement.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. The MOG Music Network, a network of blogs about music, was not part of the sale.

MOG charges $10 a month for the ability to choose and play back tracks on mobile devices from a catalog of more than 15 million songs. Ad-free listening is available on computers for $5 a month. If you don’t mind the occasional ad, you can use MOG to pick and listen to songs on computers for free.

MOG was founded in 2005 by former Gracenote CEO David Hyman and is based in Berkeley, Calif. Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Menlo Ventures are among its original investors.