Facebook on Thursday announced Music Stories, a feature in its iPhone app that lets users post links to music they like with comments.

Clicking the link will launch a 30-second preview of the music, which is streamed from either Apple Music or Spotify. Listeners then can purchase the music from the service or save it to their account there.

Facebook plans to add other streaming services to the feature. There was no word on whether it will offer Music Stories in its Android or Windows Phone apps.

More Than Just a Link

Subscribers who participate in Music Stories can do more than just paste a link; they can add commentary and remarks as well.

Music Stories is part of Facebook's News Feed, and it could extend the reach of the artists whose work is posted.

Spotify users have to sign into their account on the service and grant Facebook permissions the first time they use the Music Stories feature, said Spotify spokesperson Marni Greenberg.

"Spotify is not putting up and/or serving any content on Facebook," she told TechNewsWorld. "Users are explicitly sharing content."

Participating in Facebook Music Stories "provides Spotify listeners with a more engaging and simple way to listen to, discover and share music they love," Greenberg said.

Music Stories is an extension of the music sharing capabilities for Spotify and Rdio that Facebook has had for some time.

Apple and Spotify

Spotify and the iTunes Store not only serve up music, but also have their own sharing capabilities.

Apple Music, which was unveiled in June, includes Connect, which lets artists share lyrics, backstage photos and videos with fans and release their latest songs directly to fans.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/82718.html