Facebook Launches Social Music Feature 'Listen With Friends'

Facebook on Thursday began rolling out a new feature aimed at ramping up the social experience of listening to music online.

The feature, called “Listen With Friends"—lets users listen along with any friend that playing music.

“You can listen to the same song, at the exact same time—so when your favorite vocal part comes in you can experience it together, just like when you're jamming out at a performance or dance club,” Alexandre Roche, product designer at Facebook, wrote in a blog post Thursday.

When a Facebook user is listening to a song, a music note will appear next to their name in the chat sidebar and the real-time news ticker. To listen in, users can simply hover over that friend’s name, then click the “Listen With” button.

To listen in with a friend, both parties will need the same music service, a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to ZDNet. Currently, Spotify and Rdio are the only two music players that support Listen With Friends. If a user attempts to listen in with a friend but does not have the compatible player, they will be prompted to install it.

The feature is part of Facebook chat, so users can chat online about what they are listening to. Users can also listen in as a group while one friend acts as a deejay. Up to 50 friends can listen to the same song at the same time, and chat about it.

When a user begins listening to music with a friend, Facebook will post a story to friends’ tickers and/or news feeds. Users will be able to control who will be able to see when they are listening with a friend through their App Settings page after installing the compatible music app.

“Only the people you've shared your listening activity with can see when you're listening with a friend,” Facebook said in a Help Center post. Users will also be able to remove songs they have listened to from their timelines.

The service will roll out to all Facebook users over the next few weeks.

By Angela Moscaritolo