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(Credit: Spotify logo)
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The rumored Facebook music service has finally arrived in the form of a Facebook and Spotify partnership. During today’s F8 Developer Conference, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would be futher integrating Spotify into users News Feeds. Now, now only can you see what your friends are listening to in real time thanks to the Ticker function, you can listen to the songs they are hearing at the same time they are.
“So, I’m on Facebook and see my friends listening to a bunch of things on the side of the screen, I can (use my mouse to) hover over it, which means I’m going to be playing (the song) along with them … You discover a huge amount of new music this way,” Zuckerberg explained during the conference calling it a “real-time serendipity.”
While listening to tracks with your friends simultaneously is an added bonus, it’s what this partnership means to the music business that has people interested. Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek explained on stage that Spotify users who connect through Facebook to listen to more music are more engaged and listen to a wider variety of genres– and twice as likely to pay for music. “The service had to be free to draw them away from piracy,” he said.
Think of it this way: Not only can you see what you’re friends like, thanks to Facebook’s new design you’ll be exposed to more music than ever before. Yes, you can listen to music for free, but if you like what you are hearing, you’ll be more likely to buy the album after your sample than just going on your friend’s word. And, the service has over 15 million tracks in its database to peruse through.
It also works well for Spotify. The company has over two million paying subscribers just ahead of the Facebook partnership announcement, and you can expect that number to climb now that more Facebook users are going to tune into the service.
Are you excited for Facebook and Spotify’s partnership?
