Facebook unveils Music Stories feature, partners with Spotify and Apple Music

Facebook crushed the hope of a hundred music tech startups by unveiled its new Music Stories feature. 

The format enables users to access a 30-second previous of any song or album posted from Spotify, Apple Music and iTunes to Facebook. 

Facebook had stayed as far away as possible from building ‘music’ features, even as rumours of its plans and even of a potential Facebook-owned music streaming service continued to swirl. 

Now the company has revealed its strategy, which is far less adventurous than some had hoped and continues to keep music at arm’s length. Finally, however, users will be able to successfully share music with their friends and give those friends a taste of the track regardless of whether they are subscribed to Spotify/Apple Music or not. 

The feature is now available on Facebook’s iOS app and will presumably roll out to Android and the web in the future. 

Facebook has no intention of moving into the licensed music space: its earnings show that it has no need to enter the money-pit that is music licensing, and that it can build a solid music-related product focused on the social aspects of sharing and relying on those platforms that are already knee-deep in the game. 

(Andrea Leonelli)