Facebook snags a page from Turntable

Now your Facebook friends won't just see what you are listening to, they can tune right in

Facebook and Spotify have been cozied up since September when they announced that anyone with a Facebook account could connect to the music streaming service that was invite only.

The partnership allowed Facebook users to use the Spotify service and, in turn kept Facebook users connected and commenting on music preferences.

Facebook announced Thursday an even deeper integration where people won't just see what their friends are listening to, but will be able to listen along with the click of a button.

Some are comparing this new function to the music-sharing service Turntable.fm where people are able to create their own station and invite people to listen and share their musical selections.

Turntable.fm, however, has created a more specialized site with loyalty and perk badges that add to the sites stickiness, but this Facebook addition could provide some people the level of music interaction that would keep them on the network rather than navigating to Rdio or Turntable.fm for their music hosting and discovery interests.

Other than just being able to listen you can also listen together in a group while one of your friends plays DJ and comment on the music or communicate with other listeners.  Up to 50 friends can join your listening chat room. 

Facebook users may have noticed the slight change in their chat sidebar where the music note showing that a friend is listening to Spotify  is now clickable and connects you to your Spotify account.

This feature also works if your friends are also listening to music on the Rdio application. 

This feature will soon add more music third-party apps in coming months.  

Thus far, Spotify leads the Facebook music app pack with more than 2.4 million daily active users. While Earbits, MOG, and Rdio all have a DAU of fewer than 10,000.

Thanks, in great part to Facebook, Spotify has seen great traction in the US since it jumped across the pond this summer, but it will be interesting to see how this new "Listen With" feature will translate when Spotify's free service for six months expires for many of its users and people are then forced to either limit the number of songs they stream or pay a monthly fee.

I am also sure that people will have some strong feedback about additional privacy settings controlling who and when people listen to the playlists they have made on Spotify or other services. As with all third-party apps, users can specify what items they wish to share with their friends and this may be another layer that users will have to choose whether to have this as another public element of their profiles.