Facebook Music will have seven launch partners (leak)
It looks like Facebook's rumored upcoming music service will have at least seven launch partners. Web developer Yvo Schaap has identified several companies that will be partnering with what may soon be revealed as Facebook Music.
Schaap looked at all the major music streaming services in the world, and found some interesting references in their HTML code. Namely, all track, album and artist pages have meta data in a yet undocumented format:
<meta property="og:type" content="music.song" />
<meta property="og:audio" content="spotify:track:3ssX20QT5c3nA9wk78V1LQ" />
<meta property="og:audio:type" content="audio/vnd.facebook.bridge" />
<meta property="music:duration" content="278" />
<meta property="music:musician" content="http://open.spotify.com/artist/1ZwdS5xdxEREPySFridCfh" />
<meta property="music:album" content="http://open.spotify.com/album/4CzT5ueFBRpbILw34HQYxi" />
<meta property="music:album:track" content="1" />
Schaap believes the undocumented mentioned audio type "audio/vnd.facebook.bridge" refers to a format that bridges audio between the streaming services and Facebook's platform. He found that the following seven providers all serve this custom Facebook format by tagging their pages music.song and music.album:
We've already heard about possible links with MOG, Spotify, and Rdio, but the other four are new. A few weeks ago, I said that Facebook may even have different partners for different regions, and this guess seems to be proving correct.
Seven is a solid number to start off with, but it could be much higher. Schaap lists nine notable services that do not have the format in question: iTunes, MySpace, Pandora, Turntable.fm, Amazon.com (store and cloud player), Last.fm, Napster, Kazaa, and Groovershark.
Facebook could eventually strike deals with these guys as well, but it does not look like they will be ready by next week. That being said, Facebook has surprised us all before.
Last month, a rumor suggested Facebook Music will have two interesting features. The first, scrobbling, means tracks you listen to will be automatically added to your profile. The second, track unification, refers to seamless integration between the different music services – if you see a playlist or track posted from one service, you’ll be able to click and play it in your own service. The general consensus is Facebook will launch a music service at its f8 conference next week on September 22.
Two months ago, Facebook accidentally revealed that it is planning to launch a music service. The discovery was made in the code for the FacebookVideoCalling.jar that is downloaded when you first use Facebook's new video calling service. The Facebook installer in question is capable of downloading "MusicDownloadDialog" files for a service codenamed "vibes."
Four months ago, a rumor suggested a Music tab will be added in the left-hand column, where Facebook lists Photos, Friends, Places, Groups, Deals, Pages, and Games. It will show up if you have listened to music from one of Facebook's music partners. There will also reportedly be Music Notifications, Recommended Songs, Top Songs from friends, Top Albums from friends with cover art, Recent listens from your friends, and a persistent Play/Pause button added to the bottom of Facebook where you currently have the chat icon.
Since listening to music, sharing music, and talking about music are all social activities, it makes sense that Facebook wants to be a part of this age-old phenomenon. The rumors and leaks have been coming steadily for months, but if everything goes as planned, everything will be official on Thursday.
See also:
- Facebook Music to feature scrobbling, track unification (rumor)
- Facebook to launch music service at f8 next month (rumor)
- Spotify will not be alone on Facebook's music service
- Facebook accidentally confirms upcoming music service
- Rumor: Facebook has music plans that go beyond just Spotify
- Facebook slates 2011 f8 developer conference for September 22