Facebook Rolls Out New Listen to Music with Your Friends Feature

By Karla Robinson
January 17, 2012

After being announced at the f8 conference in September, the listen-with-friends feature is now available to Facebook users.
The function helps friends discover new music and chat with one another as they listen. Also, Facebook will post a story in the News Feed when you listen to a song with someone.
“Being able to click on someone’s music and play it is a great experience, but knowing that you helped a friend discover something new, and that you have the same taste in music, is awesome,” says Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The feature is limited to Spotify and Rdio and in order to listen together, users have to stream using the same service.
Pandora has backed away from the service on account of privacy.
“Music, on the one hand, is a very social thing. We listen to music together, we go to shows. But I think there’s also a very private dimension to it. Many people are self-conscious about what they listen to,” Pandora founder Tim Westergren said. “We’ve surveyed our listeners and a small percentage of them want people to know what they’re listening to all the time. And we start with a fundamental respect for what our listener wants and what’s in their comfort zone, not how we can grow or how we can increase referrals.”

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