Facebook has rolled out a new feature called Music Stories. It allows you to sample 30-second clips directly from your news feed, among other things.
At launch, the feature works with services like Apple Music, iTunes, and Spotify. The whole idea is that Facebook wants to enable better music discovery and sharing. In reality, it just wants your news feed to become a one-stop shop - a place where you go to get updates from friends family, news, and now new songs and music. Keep reading to learn more about Music Stories.
Music Stories: How do they work?
Posting Music Stories:
- While listening to a song in Apple Music or Spotify on your mobile device, go to the streaming service's Share menu to copy the link to the song or album that's playing, then open the Facebook for iOS app, and start composing a status update.
- Type a status, then paste the link, and post your update. A preview of that song will then appear as a "Music Story" on your timeline and within your friends' news feeds.
Using Music Stories:
- A music story appears as interactive content in your news feed and timelines. It's not labeled as a music story. It's just music player you can tap to start listening. If someone has shared several music stories, you'll be able to horizontally scroll through the previews in your news feed.
- A music story is only a 30-second preview, but you will see options to buy the song/album or add it to your streaming library without ever leaving Facebook. If it's a song from Spotify, for instance, the music story will give you an option to add it to your Spotify. Alternatively, if it's a preview from Apple Music, you can click through to stream the full song in Apple Music or buy it from the iTunes store.
Music Stories: Which services work with it?
As we mentioned earlier, the new feature initially works with Apple Music, iTunes, and Spotify. Facebook said it will expand Music Story support for additional streaming music services soon.
Music Stories: Which platforms support it?
Music Stories are iOS-only, for now.
Facebook didn't give any word on when the new feature might make its way to other platforms, such as Android or the web.
Want to know more?
We’re introducing “Music Stories” today to enable better music discovery and sharing on Facebook. The new post format allows people to listen to previews on Facebook from Apple Music and Spotify. You can read more about it on Facebook for Media: http://media.fb.com/blog
Posted by Music on Facebook on Thursday, November 5, 2015
Watch the video above to learn more about how the new feature. You can also check out Facebook's blog post.