Facebook in talks to get into the music business

The company could be launching its own streaming service, or maybe integrating music with video

Sometimes you hear something and you think to yourself, "Of course they were going to do that! How could I not have seen it!" It actually makes you feel a little dumb for missing it, since it was staring you right in the face the whole time.

That's how I feel right now after reading a report from Verge about Facebook wanting to break into the music business. Because, duh! Of course it freaking does! 

Every major tech company, from Apple to Google to Twitter, even if those plans died pretty quickly, is launching at least one, if not two, streaming services. It's probably the hottest space out there right now, so Facebook obviously wants to be a part of that.

Facebook is said to be currently in talks with the major music labels, including Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group about breaking into this space. What exactly the company is planning, and what it will look like, remain up in the air. Discussions are still in the very early stages right now and they might not amount of anything at all.

But that won't stop anybody from speculating about what this could mean!

The most obvious answer is that Facebook would take the same route as some of the others and launch its own streaming service. The company has a built in advantage considering the sheer size of its user base, which is now approaching a billion and a half users around the world. 

Honestly, though, that probably wouldn't be a great idea given how many other music streaming services there are right now. Off the top of my head I can think of two from Apple (including Apple Music, which just launched on Tuesday), two from Google, Amazon, Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody, iHeartRadio and probably about a zillion others, all of them vying for the same listeners. There really are only so many sets of ears, and so many hours in a day. 

Instead, the plan looks like it could be more interesting than that. It could take advantage of one of the fastest growing aspects of its business: its video platform.

Facebook's talks with the music labels have centered around providing music for videos on the platform, according to a report from the Information from late June. 

And that makes sense, as, in just the last year or so, the company has positioned itself as a video creation hub, one that could even rival YouTube for domination. The number of video posts per person increased 75% globally in 2014. That number was even higher, 94%, in the United States. That amounted to the number of videos, from both users and from advertisers, increasing 3.6 times in that span.

And with the number of videos being created jumping, so has the number of views, reaching four billion video every single day, up from just one billion back in September.

Given the kind of traction it is seeing, Facebook would obviously like to bolster that even further, and giving users access to music to enhance their creations would no doubt help in that effort. 

Facebook has dipped its toes in before. A few years ago it integrated with Spotify so people could see what their friends were listening to. It also added listen buttons on artist pages and a feature to allow people to to what their friends were listening to on services like Rdio and Mog.

This news, though, means the biggest foray into the music world for the company yet. 

VatorNews has reached out to Facebook for confirmation of these talks. We will update this story if we learn more.

(Image source: mashable.com)