Facebook adds Spotify streaming

ADVERTISING NETWORK Facebook has added the Spotify music streaming service to its roster and will let users access tunes direct from within its walls.

This, which seems to add more weight to Vint Cerf's warning that the firm is walling itself up out of existence, is at least interesting, since music streaming, particularly free music streaming is a serious challenge to the Apple music download model, for example.

According to the BBC, Mark Zuckerberg sees some serendipity in the arrangement, which will also let his users see what their friends are up to, and dare we say it, let advertisers know what people like and are listening to.

"Being able to click on someone's music is a great experience, but knowing you helped a friend discover something new and they liked your taste in music, and that you now have that in common is awesome," he said.

Zuckerberg might live in a bubble, we do not know, but this sort of thing happens quite nicely without Facebook. But then, so do a lot of things.

Helping people share music is a tie-up with Spotify that sees the music streaming service become part of the Facebook experience. "Having free access to music on Facebook also gives us an opportunity to express ourselves in a new way," wrote Spotify in a gushing blogpost.

"This integration with Facebook will help everyone to discover more free music than ever before. Thanks to our unrivalled, truly free service, users can just hit play to enjoy the music, no hassle, no gimmicks; month after month after month."

Spotify suggested that because it was tapping into Facebook's massive user base, that would encourage more people to buy music.

"Because these users are more social, they're more engaged. Because they're more engaged, they're more than twice as likely to pay for music," it added.

"Social discovery on Facebook means that we're bringing people back to paying for music again. And that's how the brilliant artists who create this music can continue creating it for us to enjoy." µ