As we have probably encountered, Facebook is slowly introducing this service.
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Facebook has denied claims it is working on a streaming site to rival the likes of Apple and Spotify – but that doesn’t mean it’s abandoning its music plans completely. Specifically, it seems to want to put music videos in users’ News Feed, and has already had talks with a number of music labels, according to the New York Times, which spoke to several anonymous sources.
“We’ve heard from some people that they’d like to watch videos while they scroll through News Feed”. Facebook would then monitor how the music videos perform, while sharing ad revenue with the music companies. Consumers are increasingly watching videos – whether on YouTube or on Facebook – from mobile phones and tablets, creating a fertile new opportunity for marketers to reach consumers.
One major label source also told Billboard that they’ve had no discussions with Facebook about a streaming service, and were surprised by the reports. Music Ally did attempt to contact Facebook before publishnig their report, but no-one was prepared to respond “either on or off the record”.
Facebook serves around 4 billion a videos a day but it reportedly struggles with the amount of copyrighted material uploaded.
Whether Facebook’s video growth will spell a loss in revenue at YouTube rests on a bigger issue, said Victor Anthony, Internet media industry analyst at Axiom Capital: advertisers do not seem to be moving from television to digital as fast as their audiences.
“But this video content could actually drive people back to Facebook proper”.
The company is allegedly just in the early stage of talks with record labels, but this is not the first time it has tried to expand its video-related content.
The move by Facebook comes as the social media site has ramped up its video offerings in recent weeks. It has also encouraged its users to upload their own videos.
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The move is being seen as an attempt to capture a share of the market now dominated by YouTube.
