Jun 20, 2011 10:36 GMT  ·  By

For the past month or so, rumors have surfaced about Facebook's upcoming music services integration. We now have a bit more details, including how the actual implementation will work on the site. Facebook is working on a big launch and is partnering with several players in online music, some of which already offer some sort of Facebook integration, via Facebook Connect or the Like button.

Initially, rumors said that Facebook will be partnering with Spotify to offer music-related services. This was only partly true, Facebook has indeed partnered with Spotify, but it's not the only one.

The company is currently working on signing up more partners, depending on the countries they operate. According to GigaOm, it's looking to have something to show off during its annual f8 developer conference, which should take place in August.

Facebook's music plans are rather flexible, it wants to partner with all sorts of online music companies, those offering on-demand streaming like Spotify, personalized online radio like Pandora and so on.

Once the feature goes live, users will notice a new tab in their left sidebars dubbed Music, as long as they've connected one of the music partners with Facebook.

The tab will lead users to a new Music Dashboard page which is a central place for all things related to music happening on Facebook. It will feature notifications indicating whether your friends have listened to songs you may have shared, for example.

This is where songs recommended by your friends also show up. You also get lists of the Top Songs and Top Albums your friends have been listening to. Another interesting feature is the happening now ticker which will reveal what songs your friends are currently listening to and other things related to music.

Another interesting feature is a global and persistent Play/Pause button which will be displayed next to the chat area at the bottom of the page. This will enable you to control the music playing on any service you're currently logged into with your Facebook credentials.

One key aspect of all of this is the social element. Where you're listening to music becomes secondary, sharing it with your friends and revealing your listening habits in a social context take the center stage.

Currently, the most similar service to this is Last.fm, in fact, Facebook Music will replicate pretty much everything that Last.fm does, including music streams, listening statistics for you and your friends, recommendations. Of course, most artists already have a Facebook Page, similar to the artist pages on Last.fm.