Facebook Music May Launch Next Week
Co-ed Magazine claims to have label sources stating that Facebook is set to announce phase 1 of a major expansion into music at next week’s ad:tech conference in NYC. The move would confirm rumors we reported three weeks ago and coincide with public moves that Facebook has made recently. According to the report:
artists and will register their sub-domain name through Facebook – i.e. “www.facebook.com/insertbandnamehere”- on this page Facebook users can become “fans” of the artist and connect to the media hosted on the “artist page.”
- “fans” can enjoy the acts musicand videos, upload pictures, add music to their personal page, get tour dates and interact with other fans
- Enhancements scheduled to arrive quickly include targeted marketing, ads and promotion
- artist specific sales widgets to allow for music sales through the site are in development
The source says that this is only the first generation of Facebook Music and more aggressive plans to compete with MySpace, iTunes and other music destinations are in the works. If announced Facebook Music should also force other social networking and music sites to create more open platforms and services aimed at building community around music.
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Groan. I like Facebook because I’m not friends with 500 bands. Keeping track of a small group of friends is easy and makes Facebook fun. The last thing I want is a bunch of postings from bands clogging up my page.
Groan. I like Facebook because I’m not friends with 500 bands. Keeping track of a small group of friends is easy and makes Facebook fun. The last thing I want is a bunch of postings from bands clogging up my page.
The implication of the last sentence is this move is making Facebook more open. Lots of facebook applications are already trying to provide similar functionality (etc., iLike, ReverbNation, Qloud). Facebook will grab back these artist/fan social connections. You can make your own guess as to the reason (better user experience and and/or to cement their hold on the users). Given the net result that Facebook will be taking back and controlling the use of these social connections, for music apps this move potentially reduces the openness of Facebook. On the other hand, Facebook will probably do a good job of reproducing the best of the current music apps offerings. I’m holding my breath to see the impact of these changes on third party apps, artists, and their fans.