Users Have Shared Over 5 Billion Songs On Facebook

Sites include Facebook.com . Published on February 11th, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

Facebook is by design, built for sharing, and while most people are aware of just much photos are shared on the platform, not many appreciate the scale of music shared. All that might have changed recently when Dan Rose, the VP of Partnerships for the company, let slip that over 5 billion songs have been shared on Facebook since last year’s f8 conference.

According to Rose, the rise in sharing across all media on Facebook is down to the frictionless sharing that was introduced last year. Frictionless sharing for the uninitiated is Facebook speak for allowing your shares to be spread virally among applications, and other users without the sharer having to specify individual sharing criteria. This of course wasn’t embraced by much of the Facebook community, but hey, what can they do about it?

Rose made the further point that, “the right stories to the right people at the right time.” Whether that is the end of it, only time will tell. But one also wonders about the implications of SOPA and PIPA on all this song-sharing. Those bills aren’t very selective about who they target for copyright infringement and when it comes to visibility; Facebook has it like few websites on the internet. A truly interesting set of circumstances all round, don’t you think?

Is frictionless sharing a slap in the face of Facebook users or a mark of innovation? Share your thoughts below.