Facebook music service to launch?

Facebook will likely launch a music service in concert (sorry! couldn’t resist!) with Spotify in a matter of weeks. The social networking site is expected to announce the service at its f8 developer conference Sept. 22.

According to a report Wednesday by Forbes:

The integrated service is currently going through testing, but when launched, Facebook users will see a Spotify icon appear on the left side of their newsfeed, along with the usual icons for photos and events.

Clicking on the Spotify icon will install the service on their desktop in the background, and also allow users to play from Spotify’s library of millions of songs through Facebook. The service will include a function that lets Facebook users listen to music simultaneously with their friends over the social network, one of the sources said.

Streaming music service Spotify started being offered in the United States in July. You can already link Spotify to Facebook to see your friends’ music in the People window — but that’s info vs. real music.

One feature fluidly integrated into Spotify from the get-go is social sharing. If you’d like to get sonically social, look for a Facebook logo the right-hand side of the window. By linking Spotify to Facebook, you’ll be able to see your friends’ music in the People window, below your account name in the upper right corner. Love a song? Right click it and choose the “Share to…” link to pull up your social network options.

Facebook, noted The Next Web, has been “relatively late to the music service game, which now has representatives from most of the other major players including Google Music, iTunes Match and Amazon Cloud Player.”

A hub-like service that gave people access to their favorite streaming service from right inside Facebook would be a departure from the strategy of its competitors, who are all aiming to allow people to store music in the cloud and play it back.

Does the idea of streaming music from within Facebook appeal to you? Or do you think the social networking site is getting too far afield from what it should be?

Related stories:

• What makes Spotify such a great music service?
• Mystery code may mean Facebook music service
• Facebook adding Skype video calling

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

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Adult Use of Social Networking Sites Up 61% From 2010 (Report)

The number of adults using social networking sites has increased 61% since 2010, according to a Pew Research Center report.

The Pew Internet American Life Project found that 65 percent of the 2, 277 adults surveyed say they use sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook or MySpace. That’s more than double the percentage that reported social networking site usage in 2008 (29%).

Also, in a first for Pew Internet surveys, it means that half of all adults in the U.S. use social networking sites.

Mary Madden, co-author of the Pew report said, “The graying of social networking sites continues but the oldest users are still fare less likely to be making regular use of those tools.

“While seniors are testing the waters, many Baby Boomers are beginning to make a trip to the social media pool as part of their daily routine.”

Among Internet users, social networking sites are most popular with women, young adults under age 30, and parents. Fully 89% of women in the 18-29 age range are social networkers and 69% of those do so on an average day.

Asked to describe their experience using social network sites, “good” was the most common response from survey respondents.

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