Facebook Launches New Service for Music Fans

With more than 750 million users and counting, Facebook continues to keep up a steady pace at adding special features and updating content to keep users interested and wondering what the next big feature will be. Luckily, for those of us who spend multiple hours a week on this addicting social media site, Facebook plans to announce a new music platform at its 2011 F8 developers’ conference in San Francisco this week.

This highly anticipated Facebook music platform will allow users to share their favorite music, shows and movies with friends through a third party media company. This may ring a bell with those familiar with Facebook’s existing third party games and applications which have been in place for years. Facebook has not directly specified which companies will be a part of its new platform, but there is high speculation for the likes of Spotify, MOG and Rdio, just to name a few. All three services offer free or low-cost subscriptions, allowing users the opportunity to both listen to unlimited amounts of music and share, download and tune into artist-only stations. With this additional social media platform added to Facebook, the digital music services will have a new playing presence on the Facebook front, while also pushing more direct traffic to their own sites and services.

While some services offered through the Facebook platform will be free, others may pass along their monthly subscription rate. Whether or not the fee will make a difference in which services are more popular with users is yet to be determined. It is doubtful that these fees will have much effect on usage as users will have already been paying for the third-party services. The Facebook service itself will be free. Potentially, it will drive an increase in memberships of these third-party entertainment services while at the same time giving Facebook users a better experience. It is also unknown whether Facebook will be getting a share of overall revenues of these services, simple referral fees, or if these entertainment services are paying Facebook a flat fee to participate. Whatever the cost, tapping into Facebook’s massive network is sure to be worth millions for the right service.

The details are still hazy on Facebook’s new offerings, but one thing we do know is that Facebook users may soon be facing a hub of entertainment with each login. If you had your choice, what entertainment services would you like included?

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