Facebook Launching Music Service?

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Mark Zuckerberg is planning a possible push into the digital-music business in the wake of MySpace's launch of MySpace Music last month.

The social-networking giant is talking to a number of song-streaming services and music community sites, including Rhapsody.com, iMeem.com, iLike.com, and Lala.com, about an outsourcing deal that would more deeply integrate their music experience into Facebook, sources familiar with the situation said.

Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives also have been busy taking meetings with the major record companies about the strategy.

The company has a checkered past with the recording industry. In August 2007 it was forced to pull the plug on Audio, a popular third-party application that allowed users to upload and stream music, in the face of label complaints of copyright violation.

But a formal Facebook foray into digital music would be decidedly different than MySpace Music, which is a joint venture between the online powerhouse and the world's four biggest record companies - Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI.

Unlike MySpace, which traded equity in its music venture in exchange for licenses to stream ad-supported songs, Facebook doesn't want to bog itself down in securing their own licenses to distribute music, or building a proprietary service from scratch, sources said.

The company has been toying with the concept off and on for the better part of the year, but Zuckerberg's interest in the concept is believed to have peaked now that MySpace is live with its service.

Facebook declined comment on the situation specifically, but a company spokesman said in a statement that "music sharing plays a part" in the site's mission and that it is "always talking with potential partners."

Facebook already permits a number of digital music services - including Rhapsody, iMeem, iLike, and Lala - to have a presence inside the site, allowing users to download applications to their profiles that can stream music to other users.

Source: NY Post