Facebook is rolling out a new post format on the latest version of its iPhone app called Music Stories. The new format lets you share songs and albums from popular streaming music services, starting with Apple Music and Spotify, while friends can enjoy 30-second previews of what you share. The Music Stories format also looks rich within the app. Tapping play turns the artwork in a record-like spinning animation, and a button to listen to the whole track or album on the streaming service is presented on the right.
In addition to making music sharing and discovery easier, Facebook notes that the linked song or album can be bought or saved easily through iTunes or Apple Music, and songs shared through Spotify can be saved to your account without ever leaving Facebook. While Music Story is limited to Apple Music and Spotify to start, Facebook says it will add support for additional streaming music services in the future.
To share a track to Facebook using Music Stories with Apple Music, for example, tap the Share arrow icon on any song directly in the Music app, the tap Copy to put the URL on your clipboard. Launch Facebook and start a new post, then tap and hold to paste the URL and create a Music Story on the social network.
Facebook’s new Music Stories format comes just a day after the social network revealed that it saw 1.01 billion daily active users on its platform during the month of September. Facebook is also expected to unveil a new standalone news-focused app called Notify next week with a list of media partners on board that sounds similar to Apple’s News app on iOS 9 but with push notifications for new stories.
Music Stories should also help promote Apple Music as a service in general. Tim Cook recently shared that the streaming music service has 6.5 million paid subscribers and 15 million members total including ongoing trial users. Apple Music advertising has been steady since its launch including a new ad during the CMA Awards featuring artist Kenny Chesney and an Apple Watch cameo.
