In the past two months, Facebook users have shared the music they are listening to more than 1.5 billion times.The social networking site recently formed a partnership with a number of music streaming services, including Spotify, Vevo, Deezer and SoundCloud, which has allowed users to tell their friends about the music they like.
Facebook says that with the platform, called Open Graph, the discovery of music between friends can be accelerated and make a “more valuable Facebook experience”.
Writing in a developer blog on the website, Casey Maloney Rosales Muller also noted that since its launch, music developers have more than doubled their active users. Spotify, for example, has added over four million new users since it joined with Facebook.
“Over the past few years, developers have started to demonstrate that when music is discovered through friends, people listen to more music and a wider variety of artists,” he wrote.
However, there have been some problems with the move, with millions of users of the music services complaining about having to opt out of having their music preferences published on Facebook.
Since Open Graph, ticket sales for music gigs have also increased. Mr Muller explained that sites including Ticketmaster have seen between $2 (£1.25) and $6 (£3.76) in direct ticket sales for every link shared on Facebook. The move to a more social concert experience will also likely bring brand new audiences for musicians.
Other big changes have led to a rise in the number of music videos being shared between Facebook friends. The blog reported that on October 20th, VEVO featured videos by Justin Bieber and Rihanna, resulting in the site doubling their daily active users in one day.
Music videos have hugely benefitted from social media. Statistics from Experian Hitwise recently revealed that music videos are driving the popularity of video-sharing websites like YouTube, accounting for one-third of all views.
Facebook expects the music sharing experience to increase in the coming months as the site gets ready to launch Facebook Timeline, which will allow users to express themselves, share information and discover more.