It may have investors worried about Pandora: Facebook is prepping changes to accommodate online music streaming services Spotify and Rdio. The moves are designed to eventually make the site a hub for listening to music, watching movies and playing videogames.
The thinking is the music services would create a player that would sit within Facebook, letting users hear music without leaving the site. However, the music itself would still be delivered through Spotify and Rdio, which users would be required to log in to before listening.
Facebook told media execs in recent days that it will begin letting Spotify and Rdio publish user activity on Facebook pages, much like actions such as adding friends or “liking” websites.
If finalized, the changes will be announced at Facebook’s f8 developer conference in late September, said Wall Street Journal and CNBC reports.
WSJ sources say the new arrangement wouldn’t necessarily represent a partnership with any particular music service. However, Spotify and Rdio would benefit because Facebook users could sign up for Spotify and listen to friends’ playlists without paying.
CNBC noted that it may open the doors wide to multiple third-party music services could hitch their wagon–also including Pandora and MOG. If so, the issue wouldn’t be as impactful to any one service, such as Pandora.
