Echo Nest Maps Music API With Facebook, Offers $10,000 Developer Prize

The Echo Nest has added Facebook to its free "Rosetta Stone" music ID mapping service in a move that should mean more socially-connected music apps on Facebook, and is putting up a $10,000 prize to encourage developers. What does all this mean for musicians and music fans?

Hundreds of thousands of artists and millions of fans are embracing Facebook even though the social network has not developed their own music offering. So, it's been up to third party developers to make music engaging on Facebook.

But these apps rarely help fans discover new music based on their preferences, direct fans to the appropriate Facebook artist pages or allow them to "like" artists as they listen.

The Echo Nest’s new API enables developers to create music apps with links and "likes" to the appropriate Facebook artist pages, alongside the a set of music data including more than five billion data points on over 18 million songs and over 1.5 million artists. "Music is the most social of the arts," The Echo Nest's Director of Developer Platform, Paul Lamere told Hypebot. "With this integration of Facebook IDs into our system, we are making it easier for application developers to build the next generation of social music applications."

To encourage the development of innovative music applications around Facebook, The Echo Nest will
award one of the company's trademark blue "Sweatsedo" luxury-wear suits filled with $10,000 to the
developer of the best app using The Echo Nest API and new Facebook feature. Details here.