Facebook to Announce Music Next Week
Posted by Nick O'Neill on November 1st, 2007 3:26 PMI previously wrote about Facebook launching a music service. A couple days ago the rumor resurfaced that Facebook would be announcing the music service at the AdTech conference in addition to announcing their new ad network. According to Wired, the rumor has been confirmed by a Warner Bros. Records executive who posted on his blog that he is looking for Facebook application developer immediately.
From someone that has experience in developing Facebook applications for large clients I can support Ethan’s argument that he’d “be really surprised if the technology head of a major label wanted to hire a Facebook programmer for a quick, rush job.” That Facebook plans on making two massive announcements next week it a strike back at all the buzz that Google is generating from OpenSocial.
Whether or not this will help quell the buzz, Facebook and Google are now battling in the same ring, fighting to dominate the social space. In addition to competing with MySpace music, according to the Wired article, Facebook will be competing with iTunes by enabling “music sales widgets that would compete with iTunes by letting bands sell music directly from their Facebook pages, the way they already can on MySpace.” Facebook is opening up new battles on multiple fronts. It will be interesting to see if they can hold expand in multiple directions.
November 3rd, 2007 at 1:52 pm
As a musician, I hate this idea. Myspace has been a great platform for promoting music thus far, and it doesn’t exhibit the same revenue hungry ambition that Facebook does. It’s only a matter of time until it becomes a Clear Channel with payola schemes deciding who hears what.
When it comes to art, MySpace’s technological weaknesses are actually strengths because they enable an organic process of discovering music. I expect that Facebook will foolishly or selfishly attempt to ’solve’ that problem and help to start reversing the positive trend that music has been experiencing largely BECAUSE of MySpace.
If Facebook starts to provide solutions for the big record labels, then it’s time to run.