Wanna hear what music your friends are listening to when they're on Facebook? The social networking site is adding that feature via several services, including Slacker Radio, iHeart Radio, Rhapsody and Spotify, the music-streaming service that came to the U.S. in recent months.
Facebook users will turn to the social networking site's new "Ticker" feature, which lets you see what your friends are doing in real-time, to access music. The music service, as well as those for movies, TV and news, launches today, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.
The music service is simple to use, he said Thursday at Facebook's f8 developers' conference, using snippets of songs from Nirvana and Jay-Z to demonstrate.
"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."
He called the music-sharing/listening program part of the "real-time serendipity" that Facebook is trying to build into the site.
When you actually play a song that your friend or friends are listening to, they'll get a notification that you did so.
Spotify, highlighted by Zuckerberg, has more than 15 million tracks in its collection. The service is well-known in Europe, especially in Sweden, where it first started in 2008.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said the addition of the music-sharing service to Facebook completes a "missing link" for the site, and is "a big day for all the music lovers around the world."
Other music-related additions to Facebook, announced Thursday, include:
Slacker Radio
The popular Internet radio service is moving in as well. "Facebook users who add Slacker Radio to their Timeline are able to personalize their listening experience, publish their music story to the Dashboard and discover music with their friends on Facebook,” said Jonathan Sasse, Slacker senior vice president of marketing.
iHeartRadio
Starting today, iHeart Radio users will "be able to add their music listening directly to their Facebook profile and enable their friends to see which artists, songs and stations, including custom stations, they are listening to. Users' activity will appear on an aggregated basis in friends' News Feeds and on listeners’ Facebook profiles."
Rhapsody
The digital music service unveiled a free trial for Facebook users that provides "unlimited and instant access to Rhapsody’s catalogue of 13 millions songs with the click of a button. The trial also includes access to Rhapsody via all major smartphone types including Apple and Android mobile phones, making it the only on-demand music service to offer a free trial with full access to all features for 30 days, even while on the go."
Rdio
Well-known for its mobile apps, the service's collections and playlists "are instantly updated and you can sync music and listen, even when you're offline," Rdio says.
MOG
The on-demand service says it has 12 million tunes in its "all on demand, all at CD-quality" catalog.
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