Facebook is a mess when it comes to music. The Facebook Music service launched in late 2007 and since then has faced wide-ranging criticism due to its lack of any serious strategy.
But is all of that changing? There has been a recent flurry of speculation about Facebook’s music service following an article in The New York Post reporting that Facebook is again considering its options for a new digital music service.
While this story has generated buzz about Facebook Music, the rumored changes are not that significant. According to the story, Facebook might forsake making its own deals with the four major record labels in favor of working through a partnership with a third-party music streaming service. In addition, Facebook's plans apparently reflect a case of MySpace Music envy -- founder Mark Zuckerberg has renewed his interest in music due to MySpace’s recent success with the launch of its music service.
But make no mistake -- this is not news. First of all, the fact that "Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg is plotting a possible push into the digital-music business" hardly comes as a surprise. Zuckerberg and his team have never stopped working on the music issue. Everyone (including Zuckerberg) knows that Facebook is abysmally behind in the music business and it must figure out a way to catch up.
Second, according to The New York Post article, "Zuckerberg's interest in the concept is believed to have peaked now that MySpace is live with its service." Again, this is not surprising. MySpace Music launched to incredible success. According to reports from MySpace, one billion songs were streamed in the first few DAYS that the service was live. There is no doubt that everyone at Facebook was watching the MySpace Music launch closely. After all, there were questions about whether MySpace Music would succeed or not. Now that MySpace has proven that music tied to a social network can be a big success, Facebook has the confirmation that it may have been waiting for that music is a business worth pursuing.
Music is on track to be a $4.1 billion online business in 2008. This figure will grow to $5.9 billion in 2009 and $7.5 billion in 2011, according to eMarketer. According to this September 2008 social network report from Universal McCann, 34% of social network users are already actively giving their opinions on music and 10% have promoted a band. This interest in music is second only to photo sharing, which is done by 55% of social network users. Online consumers want to consume music, and they will use a social network to do so.
So will Facebook get into the digital music business? Definitely. Will it happen quickly? Probably not. As billions of music dollars move from offline to online channels, Facebook is going to think long and hard about the business model that will allow the company to make the most money possible from its 130 million plus unique visitors. And when Facebook eventually launches its music service, every possibility will have been explored, including my personal prediction: some sort of partnership with iTunes.
Melissa Chang is the founder of Pure Incubation, an Internet incubator based in the Boston area. Her blog is at www.16thletter.com.
More news, commentary, and predictions from The Industry Standard:
Yet another face book/web 2.0 effort to raise the value of a company on the backs of members content.
Will the face book music service mimic the greed of the wonderful myspace plantation ?
Artist and content creators our fields are open for you cultivate. Work hard contribute all you can, and in the end we will give you not a dime of the value that you create.
I think its time that the "Community" turn the web 2.0 share cropper model on its head.
Demand something in exchange for your content. It has value; that is why myspace and Face Book have "Valuations". Their Valuations are not based on their technology, it is based on member created content and actions.
At adelph.us we are trying to put the community first. Our way of doing things may not work; but we think that for the "Community" contributors it is worth the effort.
Post new comment