(2008-10-20) Facebook Music Store Rumors

FaceBook may launch its own music store (Music Industry, E Commerce) soon. Sure, Facebook's recently-opened platform has opened a few doors for users to stream music and share their favorite artists via apps such as I Like (with 5 million monthly users) and Rhapsody. But this middleware still means that music isn't an integral component of the Facebook experience... Digital music distribution is experiencing a resurgence of competition now that DRM has all but been eliminated (we're looking at you, ITunes Store), but we aren't banking on Facebook playing second fiddle to MySpace Music. Considering Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's reported reluctance to give up the same equity control to the labels that MySpace did to create its new store, the company would probably opt to partner with established services like ITunes Store, Amazon, or even Real's Rhapsody.