A SUMMARY OF MUSIC ON FACEBOOK:
Some fun things with Andy Samberg kicking things off with a somewhat humorous presentation that led into the now media-friendly Mark Zuckerberg show. His media training has really paid off and the whole presentation was quite impressive.
A huge new feature is called Timeline which will allow for a form of digital scrapbooking of memories that seems quite powerful. However, this feature will also include embeddable apps from media companies, including music, that will allow for discovering media through what your friends are currently enjoying or have enjoyed in the past.
Spotify was used as an example of a music app that can be added to your Timeline including the ability to “listen with a friend". Basically, they're listening to something, click, you're listening along with them.
A huge emphasis is being put on music/media discovery as a way for fans to find new artists which is expected to lead to more sales so that the industry benefits as well.
Spotify CEO and Founder Daniel Ek discussed the Spotify app including the fact that it will be free. I think all these apps are designed to be free. He also said that Facebook users on Spotify listen to more music, both in quantity and breadth, and buy more music. So sales figures on the new Facebook will be interesting if they release them.
Timeline is rolling out over the next few weeks and media apps are said to be available “now" though I don't see signs of them yet.
Music partners at launch include:
- TuneIn
- iHeartRadio
- AudioVroom
- Earbits
- Deezer
- Spotify
- Rdio
- Slacker
- MixCloud
- Turntable.fm
- MOG
- Rhapsody
- Songza
- SoundCloud
- Jelli
But other media industry partners include a number with connections to the music industry.
Netflix was featured in the movie/tv apps discussion but Pitchfork showed up on the list. I'm assuming that's Pitchfork.tv.
Vice and Mashable were included in the news partners list.
I spaced out during the brief Games presentation. I think it was the shortest because they already have games as a big part of Facebook.
They also introduced the concept of Lifestyle Apps which can be related to anything anybody does. They're like apps people use to document their daily runs or their cooking and so forth. However, Metacafe was on the list of Lifestyle App partners as were the following ticket companies:
- Eventbrite
- Ticketfly
- Ticketmaster
- Stubhub
- ScoreBig.com
DailyMotion showed up on one of the lists and I've also been informed that VEVO is included which ups the music video ante.
There was no Facebook Music service per se. Music is more an integrated part of the platform through these new apps.
There was a whole lot more and I'm leaving some big gaps but those are the main ways music will be part of the new Facebook that I got. Music was also part of the presentation with T-Pain's vocals on All I Do Is Win opening and closing the show and brief audio clips of Jay-Z, Nirvana and Kanye West.
Now for the panel on The Future of Digital Music.
