Is Facebook Going to Launch a Music Service? [UPDATE!]

Maybe. Everyone else seems to be doing it. And given how much time people spend on Facebook, couldn’t this turn out to be some kind of killer app for the company? From Music Ally:

Facebook’s digital music ambitions have been making headlines this month, with reports of early talks with labels linked to its trial of ad-supported native videos.

But Music Ally can reveal that while Facebook will expand that trial to music videos soon, the social network is planning to follow that with the launch of an audio music-streaming service to compete with Spotify, Apple Music and others.

Sources speaking to Music Ally off the record have revealed just how bold Facebook’s plans are, with its plans to monetise music videos an important stepping stone towards the on-demand audio service.

That’s because the first phase will see Facebook paying royalties to music rightsholders for plays of their music videos on its service, while also launching a system akin to YouTube’s Content ID to help those rightsholders identify and then either take down or ‘claim’ user-uploaded videos featuring their music – getting associated ad revenues in the latter case.

Sources told Music Ally that talks for the music-video side of things are at an advanced stage, with a rollout expected to happen in the next few months. We understand that the Content ID-style system is being licensed in from a third party rather than built in-house, with labels keen to be sure that the system is reliable and efficient before finalising licensing deals.

So it seems to be more of  YouTube thing than something that might fight Spotify. More detail here.

UPDATE: Billboard reports that Facebook has “no plans” to launch a streaming music service.