Rumours of a Facebook music service have been around for months with plenty of talk of a Facebook/Spotify partnership in the pipeline. Now code that seems to point to just such a plan has been discovered lurking in the code for the new Facebook Skype calls feature.
Click through to see the evidence that Facebook video chat could soon be joined by Facebook Vibes…
Software engineer and researcher Jeff Rose took a close look at the code used to install the Facebook video calling function on your computer. Inside the installer he found references to not one but two applications.
One called “Peep” is related to the Facebook video chat client but the other is called “Vibes” and connected to a command design to bring up a dialogue box called Music Download.
Earlier reports about a possible Facebook/Spotify deal suggested that an icon within Facebook would install the service onto your desktop. The code uncovered by Rose would enable just that. Conveniently, Spotify announced earlier this week that it’s now set for a US launch.
Of course, two lines of code don’t mean all the much on their own. They could relate to a now discarded product or point to entirely different Facebook Music plan. Mark Zuckerberg has long been interested in adding a music component to Facebook and even worked in parallel on a peer-to-peer service called Wirehog in the early days of the social network.
Facebook has grand plans and adding music to the mix would definitely make sense. Do you think Facebook should launch a music service? Or are there enough options to choose from already?
Out TBC | £TBC | Facebook (via Life Is A Graph/Mashable)
