Hey Lifehacker, What are my options for unlimited/unmetered streaming music in Australia? Given the paltry data limits most providers offer here on mobile plans compared to overseas, streaming music on the go doesn’t seem very feasible. Do any providers make this possible or easy, or will I need to fork out buckets of cash for overpriced data packs? Thanks, Streaming Disco
Dear SD,
There are lots of streaming music services on offer in Australia. However, there’s only one which we know of that offers unmetered data: Telstra’s local MOG service. If you’re a Telstra mobile customer, using MOG won’t count against your data allowance.
There is one caveat: the future of the MOG service seems questionable. Telstra licensed the brand from MOG, which in turn was acquired by Beats, which in turn was purchased by Apple. While Telstra has said it will continue to operate MOG locally and might end up transitioning that to a Beats-branded service, it’s not clear how that will work. Apple might end up subsuming Beats into its own iTunes Radio service, in which case Telstra is unlikely to score an exclusive partnership.
So the future looks murky, but if you don’t want to pay data charges (and you’re happy paying Telstra’s higher-than-everyone-else plan rates), right now MOG is the only game down under. (If readers know of one we’ve missed, please tell us in the comments.)
Cheers
Lifehacker
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Comments
5 responses to “Ask LH: Are There Any Unmetered Music Streaming Services In Australia?”
If Internode is your ISP you should check out the list in the link below of what they offer unmetered (Australian Steam servers are included in this list)
http://www.internode.on.net/residential/entertainment/unmetered_content/
Does that apply to mobile broadband though?
The OP wanted to know about unmetered streaming on the go (i.e. on a mobile device) so internode won’t help with that.
The BEST way to get around this is to create an “offline” playlist in spotify. While at home or anywhere connected to wifi, sync all songs to your phone. Turn off sync on 3G/4G and it will automatically update when ever spotify is on and at home if you add to that particular playlist. BOOM, nothing works better than that AND not using any data at all.
“the future of the MOG service seems questionable” this explains why even though the App is CRAP it never gets updated.
Take note the MOG is unmetered for Telstra Business Mobile Plans and some Telstra Mobile plans on NextG. Telstra Business Mobile Broadband plans don’t provide unmetered access. Telstra consumer plan will be metered as well unless you are on the post paid mobile $79 and $129 at least.
The MOG site specifically says “most Telstra BigPond and mobile customers.”
http://bigpondmusic.com/mog
There’s no mention of Telstra business mobile broadband (which is not BigPond), and “most mobile customers” certainly includes far more than just $79 and $129 post-paid plans.
I’m still on an old Next-G cap plan at $49 (as many of millions of customers would be, as those plans are/were very good value for money), and it is definitely unmetered.
It’s trivially easy to check, anyway. Hit the web site. green dot = unmetered.