Facebook has been meeting with record labels in secret, but until now the company's alleged streaming plans were a total mystery. Thankfully a new report from Music Ally may shed a little light on what Mark Zuckerberg and his team are up to.
Facebook will apparently kick things off with a music video service. This makes sense given the popularity of the site's current video platform, which includes an autoplay feature and extra weighted importance in the News Feed. The company will also apparently create a new system that can identify non-authorized music content.
Of course, the move would also put Facebook and YouTube in even closer competition, and that's probably not an accident. Music videos are a huge business for the Google-owned video streaming site. "It's a mass land grab," one anonymous insider told Music Ally.
In the future, Facebook may also launch a straightforward audio-based music streaming service. The company could build its own app, though it may be easier to simply buy a popular one like Spotify or Rdio. Either way, the social network appears to have big plans for the music industry. For now, though, don't be surprised to see Facebook start promoting music videos in your News Feed.
