Facebook testing a new product called Slideshow in partnership with Warner Music

Facebook is seeing an exponential rise in its video consumption, and is now seeking to expand that phenomenon via a new product called Slideshow, which enables users to share photos and videos in a “creative and succinct” way.

As part of Slideshow's features, Facebook will enable users to sync their music and photos to commercial music, rather than stock music provided by Facebook itself. 

The first iteration of the product features a partnership with Warner Music, which is providing a limited amount of songs as soundtrack options. This is a good way for Facebook to test the waters and understand how users may want to interact with this kind of offering. 

Should the partnership prove to be a success, it could quickly expand to include music from other labels. At the moment there is no indication as to whether Facebook would pay for the music per-sync, per-stream or whether labels would receive a cut of the advertising revenue.

Amazon recently made its own entry in the user-generated video space with Amazon Prime Video. Between Amazon and Facebook, the days of YouTube’s dominant position of the video market may be counted.  

(Andrea Leonelli)