Music is great, that’s something most of us can agree on – and Facebook is trying a new way to capitalize on that. A new feature called Music Stories that lets users preview a song in the app rolls out to the iPhone Facebook app today.
Share a song from Apple Music or Spotify and (if you’re on the iPhone app) you’ll be able to listen to a 30-second clip of the song while on Facebook. However, I tried it out and when I clicked the song in Facebook it took me straight to Spotify. Click through if you want to save or buy the song in Apple Music or Spotify.
In the announcement blog post, Michael Cerda, Director of Product, wrote that they will be expanding support for more streaming services in the near future. He didn’t mention anything about the update becoming available for non-iOS phones.
This new development could be a cool thing once it's not so limited. Before Music Stories (and for those who aren't on an iPhone), sharing music on Facebook usually means linking to a YouTube video which plays right in the news feed. It's a clunky process because first you're listening to a song you want to share in a streaming service, then you have to find it on YouTube (which can be difficult if it's an obscure song) and then share it to Facebook. It works, but Music Stories could be an upgrade even though it only plays the first 30 seconds of a song.
Facebook hopes this new post format will encourage artists to share more songs, and fans to engage with those songs more, or in other words become even more attached to their newsfeed.