With so many audio-streaming sites available, you would think we've seen it all. But rumor has it that one of the biggest social media sites might be taking its services up a notch by taking on two of the biggest music streaming services.
According to some insiders, Facebook is looking to take on music giants Apple Music and Spotify with plans of launching its own music-related service.
Though there are no exact details yet regarding what Facebook has planned, sources tell Music Ally that the initial stages of the project are in development. Facebook is taking the first step in building its audio site with a service that functions quite similarly to YouTube.
"It's a mass land grab. Facebook going into the video space was always going to be an enormous, ambitious land grab and no doubt something they've been planning for some time as the potential income from ad revenue will be incredible," said one unnamed source.
Facebook has not yet confirmed if it will indeed be adding music services. However, according to reports, it will be paying royalties to rights holders for the content it will be using. It also has contingency systems such as content ID in place for the rights holders to register their content to prevent piracy and allow them to either take down or claim user-uploaded videos featuring their music.
Sources have indicated that users will notice in the coming months music links inside Facebook, but the content of these links will only be available for users who have the Facebook Music app installed. Users must have the app installed if they intend to play Facebook music inside Facebook.
Some experts are saying that Facebook is more likely to build its own music service rather than buy out an existing one, like when it forked over $19 billion for WhatsApp, $2 billion for Occulus VR and $1 billion for Instagram.
Exciting news, but Facebook has denied launching its own music streaming service. In a statement sent to The Verge, Facebook says it has "no plans to go into music streaming." Instead, it is working on something "unique and unlike" other services that are already available on the market.
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