Facebook announced its music streaming function in the U.S. in November, and now it is bringing Music Stories to the Japanese version of its social networking platform, reports the Japan Times. Facebook’s music feature allows users to post and share music circulated by music streaming services on their Facebook timelines. The feature allows users to share and comment on music.
2015 a landmark year for Japan
On Tuesday, Facebook Japan spokesman Naoto Yokoyama said in a news conference, “The function was announced in the U.S. in November last year. Music streaming services AWA and D Hits have cooperated with us to make it available in Japan.”
Facebook is also in talks with other services like Apple Music to participate in the future. By clicking the share button on the screen, music can be shared from KKBOX and AWA and D Hits.
For Japan, 2015 was an important one in regards to music. This year saw several music streaming services — Amazon Prime Music, Apple Music, Google Play Music, Line Music and AWA – launching their services in the region.
Initially, many services attracted users with free-trial periods. The Line Music app being downloaded 8 million times in the first eight weeks. However, after the free trials, the services struggled to persuade users to upgrade to premium accounts.
Facebook music function offers more options
Tech website Engadget, citing a survey in April by Mobile Marketing Data Labo, revealed that 57.8% of the total 703 music streaming service users are in free-trial periods.
AWA director Tetsutaro Ono explained, “We have about 30 million songs available for unlimited listening for ¥960 per month, but the users know that they can’t listen to all of them. They usually listen to 10 or 20 songs and decide to quit the service.”
Ono says their strength is to encourage users to design their playlists, and presently, they have around 150,000 playlists shared on several social platforms. Now Facebook’s Music Stories function will present an opportunity for non-AWA users to enjoy such playlists directly on Facebook, Ono said.
In other Facebook news, the social network is reported to be testing a translation tool among a small group of users. Such a tool is expected to boost much-needed connectivity around the world. Such a tool has been there for corporates, celebrities and groups and soon will be available to general users. The tool will be a “multilingual composer,” suggesting that users will be free to share in multiple languages.
In early market trading today, Facebook shares were in the red. Year to date, the stock is up more than 7%, while in the last year, it is up almost 31%.
