Facebook Considers Music Service

Facebook is approaching big record companies about creating a music service on the social networking site, according to several people familiar with the matter.

The approach has come in the past week and was described as “preliminary”. It follows similar moves by MySpace, the leading social network site, which is discussing a MySpace Music joint venture with the four largest record companies – Universal Music, Sony BMG, Warner Music and EMI.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Facebook sees first decline in UK growth - Feb-22
Analysis: Social networks may find it does not pay to be too possessive - Jan-21
Editorial comment: Scrabble squabble - Jan-17
Mattel in war of words over Scrabulous - Jan-16
Samwers join Facebook - Jan-16
Facebook set for a delicate balancing act - Dec-28

The record companies, all of whom declined to comment, view the recent talks as evidence of the importance of music to social networking sites as they vie for young audiences.

They are hoping that the sites, which have mostly served as promotional platforms for artists, will become sources of revenue at a time when their sales of physical albums are in decline. They are also eager to encourage a counterweight to Apple’s dominant iTunes store.

While details remain vague, record executives said that they expected a service would offer consumers free streams of music, supported by advertising, as well as the ability to pay for downloads in MP3 format, which can be played on any device.