Facebook may finally be making a power play into a world where they are not the market leaders: online music. How, do you ask? By partnering with one of the world’s most popular bands, The Jonas Brothers, to launch their new single via a live video stream.
The pop band will be using their Facebook Page and the live video service Ustream (
) on Thursday to chat live with fans and then debut “Paranoid,” their new song. Although many other bands have used social media to debut their music, not many have used Facebook () as the platform. In turn, this could represent the start of a major shake-up in online music.
First, how it will work: The Jonas Brothers will appear tomorrow at 5 PM PST on their Facebook page using an embedded live stream powered by Ustream. This not only includes the live stream, but a chatroom as well. It will not get a Twitter (
) chat, unlike most videos on Ustream, but apparently a Facebook chat. If it was anything like the Facebook/CNN partnership for the Obama inauguration, there could be a lot of Jonas Brothers status updates tomorrow.
Since the page is public, the video should be available to everyone, even if you’re not a fan of the group. Updates will be sent to the homepages of their more than one million Facebook page fans. If successful, it will be the first of four Jonas Brothers videocasts on Facebook.
Facebook Moving Into Online Music?
This is a big move by Facebook into the music space, a place where they are currently lagging behind competitors. While other bands have done launches using Imeem (), iLike, or MySpace Music, Facebook has never been the ideal platform for music media.
By partnering and promoting a band as large as The Jonas Brothers, Facebook may attract other artists to conduct similar launches in the future. This is also a loss for MySpace Music; The Jonas Brothers were a big face of the MySpace Music launch last year.
The Jonas Brothers have demonstrated their tech savvy and understand the role that social media plays in the lives of their young audience. They not only have a huge presence on Facebook, but have been a trending topic on Twitter multiple times in the last week (via their hashtag #jonaslive). Clearly, The Jonas Brothers understand that their technologically-oriented fans are huge users of social media.
Overall, Facebook, Ustream, and the Jonas Brothers will probably all end up winners. If this live event succeeds, you can expect Facebook to continue a big push into music.
