Digital Music News recently published some promo fluff from Facebook about music services on the platform. With a teaser at the top, it is followed by some “statistics” showing how engaged Facebook is with music. Looking through these statistics, I was struck by just how “NON-statisticy” these statements/numbers are – they are essentially a list of positive benefits that music services can get by engaging with a social network that has massive amounts of traffic. They don’t point to anything of substance – they don’t show that Facebook is a good place to engage music fans or artists, they don’t show that usage on the site is anything other than a byproduct of normal social networking.
Only 2 lines interested me in this article:
Songza:– Facebook-connected users listen an average of 20% longer than non-connected Facebook users.Spotify:– After integrating with Open Graph, found that Facebook-connected users were more than twice as likely to become paying users.
The first – from Songza – shows that there may just be a hint of value in integrating with Facebook – perhaps users of a service will use it more if they are connected to Facebook – perhaps because music is inherently social, so that sharing with friends may cause people to engage longer/deeper with a particular service.
The second – from Spotify – is very interesting because it also shows a real value proposition for music services in terms of engaging with Facebook. If Facebook connected users become paying users at a higher rater, I as a music service would pay very close attention to this trend.
I’m still convinced that Facebook has NOT done a great job at becoming a positive place for artists, or a positive place for people to experience music in a social setting – and these two small nuggets don’t really move me from that position.
