According to a new report from Forbes, Facebook and Spotify are partnershing on a music service that is already in testing, and it could launch within 2 weeks. According to Facebook and Spotify, there’s nothing going on…officially.
Clearly, we’ll have to keep any such partnership filed under rumor for the time being.
Parmy Olon at Forbes says “sources close to the deal” told the publication the two have in fact partnered, it will be launching in as little as two weeks, it will see a Spotify icon added to the left side of the Facebook News Feed, and clicking it will install the service on the desktop in the background, while allowing users to play songs from Spotify simultaneously with friends.
That same Forbes report also quotes a Spotify spokesperson as saying, “We have a Facebook integration. We’re continuously working with them to make that as good as it can be. But that’s the extent of our relationship.”
Spotify told Mashable something similar: “We have a good relationship with Facebook in that we have done an integration on Facebook Platform that has been valuable in terms of driving engagement with the Spotify service. We’re continuously working together to make the social experience on Spotify the best it can be and welcome relationships with any company looking to innovate by building more social value into the user experience.”
Facebook also said there was nothing to announce. While pre-announcement details being kept private is to be expected, Spotify’s responses seem to suggest that any partnership is simply an extension of Spotify’s existing Facebook presence, as opposed to any new joint service.
Even Olson’s report says that no money would change hands.
Regardless, it won’t be coming to the U.S. because Spotify still has been unable to get all of the licensing details worked out that would allow its service to legally operate here. That includes any Facebook integration. That could all change in time, but people have been waiting a long time, and meanwhile, plenty of other Internet music services continue to carve out their own spaces in niche.
