14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook's eagerly anticipated F8 developers' conference is about to get underway. There have been plenty of rumors about the expected new features and announcements at the event and there are a few new ones as well.
But at least part of the rumors are turning out to be accurate, the first panel is dubbed "The Future of Digital Music" and will feature none other than Spotify CEO Daniel Ek.
Spotify has been rumored to be one of the launch partners of Facebook's music ambitions.
There will also be a panel dubbed "Mobile + Social" which will included execs from both Zynga and Playfish, two big social gaming companies, as well as Billy Chasen, the co-founder and CEO of Turntable.fm.
Interestingly enough, there will also be a panel dedicated exclusively to Social Gaming with some industry heavy weights.
Finally, Facebook has announced the Investing in Social panel which will include several people representing big venture capital funds.
"We are excited about the lineup of panelists we have confirmed for the Transforming Industries session track," Facebook's Kathleen Loughlin writes.
"In this track, you will hear from seasoned engineers, entrepreneurs and VCs as they share strategies for building innovative social products that remake industries," she said.
Apart from these events, you can count on several others, covering the big announcements Facebook has lined up.
Luckily, Facebook will be live streaming the entire conference, everything including "keynotes, sessions and interviews with partners, developers and Facebook product teams."
You can check out the streams on the F8 Facebook Page or at f8.facebook.com.
The persistent music player has been delayed or scrapped
There should be plenty of exciting stuff announced at the event, but one thing that is said to be no longer coming is the unified music player.
One of the big music-related features was said to be a persistent music player that would control any music you're listening too, regardless of what music streaming service you're subscribed to, as long as it's a Facebook partner.
But it seems that plans for the player have been scrapped, at least for now, and there won't be any announcement on this front at the conference. That said, that doesn't mean it won't come in the future.