Tracks from Spotify, Rdio or Mog, will look the same to users

Sep 12, 2011 13:00 GMT  ·  By

Facebook Music is building up to be one of the biggest products the site has ever launched. While details so far indicate that Facebook won't have much involvement in the actual product and will only provide the platform, it seems that the social network is actually taking a more involved role.

While the actual music will be provided by its music partners, the site wants to create a great music experience and it's not leaving it to others to provide it.

One of the key features of the upcoming Facebook Music, which has not been officially confirmed, is a unified music player.

What this means is that, regardless of the music service you use, or subscribe to, listening to music on Facebook is the same and is done via a universal player, integrated into the site.

The player will also be persistent, the music will keep on playing regardless of where you are on the site and how you move about. And you'll be able to listen to music from any service you subscribe to, or which has a free tier.

Another key feature for Facebook Music, related to the universal player, is that sharing and any other interaction around music is also universal.

If you share a track with your friends, a track you listen to from Spotify for example, they will be able to listen to the very same track from Rdio or Mog, whichever they use, provided of course, that it's available from the other music services.

Finally, one thing that's going to drive up engagement with the music services and probably do a lot for Facebook Music's popularity is the scrobbling feature, i.e. the ability to keep track to the songs you listen to and how many times.

This is what drove Last.fm to the size it is today and this is why the social music site, which hasn't seen much activity of late, should be the most worried about Facebook Music. [via TechCrunch]