Will Facebook Put Major Focus on Music?

When Facebook opens up f8, the annual Facebook developer's conference, on Thursday, there's rampant speculation that one of the big announcements will be Facebook's intentions to make music a major part of the user experience. For weeks now the word on the streets has been that Facebook intends to partner up with services like Spotify and Rhapsody to provide content to its user base of nearly one billion. Obviously for the music industry, and for those companies partnering with Facebook, a billion potential customers is nothing to sneeze at.

What does this mean, though, really? Clearly Facebook is trying to make a move to be a one-stop shop for media content and social networking. Friends can subscribe to whatever music service they prefer, share the content to their walls and Facebook pages, and every one of their friends will be able to hear or watch the same content. It's an angle for Facebook that they're hoping will plant an even deeper root into the online experience.

Having already vanquished its predecessor MySpace, at this point Facebook is likely looking to do as much as it can to fortify itself for the future. In the business of social networks, it's a constantly evolving marketplace. This drives many of the changes to Facebook over the last few weeks, changes that some users aren't too thrilled about. Clearly though, Facebook still has its eyes on the future, and for Facebook, they see the future as being tied very heavily to media content delivery.

It'll be quite interesting to see how the music industry reacts to whatever the streaming services and Facebook come up with. Throughout time, the biggest priority for record companies has been to make sure lucrative licensing fees are paid and upheld. As long as funds are still rolling into their coffers, they may be appeased enough to not raise a big stink. Historically though, the recording industry has been rather short-sighted when it comes to new platforms to give consumers content. Radio was a threat. Cassette tapes were a threat. Burnable CDs and MP3 files were a threat. In every one of those scenarios, the record industry was forced to adapt.

It's undeniable that Facebook at this point has just as much clout as any other online service. That clout and power could make it quite the player in the music and media business. Having amassed nearly a billion user's guarantees that no matter what, their voice will be heard, and that makes any decision they make to move towards content delivery intriguing and worth keeping an eye on.