Facebook have told TechCrunch "we have no plans to launch a music service", which is a pretty unequivocal statement and probably means Facebook Music will go live on Monday.
There has been chatter for years now that Facebook would launch some sort of proprietary music service to compete with MySpace's music platform, the strong link to music being the latter's only real USP over the former for sometime now.
For a while Facebook were in talks with Universal's ultimately canned digital music venture TotalMusic, and had Universal been able to persuade all of its major label competitors to get involved (it was Warner who were the main hold out) a Facebook-branded TotalMusic streaming and download service might now be operational.
After Facebook and TotalMusic stopped working together, talk of a Facebook music service died down. But MySpace's acquisition of iLike last year made some speculate that Facebook might again look to create some sort of official music facility, given that iLike control the most popular music-based third-party app used by Facebook users.
TechCrunch approached the social networking firm for clarification on its music plans this week, after someone noticed a mysterious official looking 'music app' was appearing in some people's application settings lists on Facebook. But the social networking company say that was a mistake.
If Facebook have decided once and for all to stay out of the digital music domain that's probably good news for MySpace, who are increasingly positioning themselves as an entertainment platform rather than a true social networking community. It's just a shame that the expanded MySpace Music service - launched here in the UK late last year of course - is so totally awful. It's enjoyed some success in the US, but when Spotify launches there (or more American music fans start to discover Grooveshark), you really have to wonder how long MySpace's music service can continue to trundle along in its current form.
Subscribe