Facebook to Launch iTunes Competitor?

This should be an interesting development if it does come to fruition.
Oops, I think I read that wrong. I took it as a complement to iTunes rather than a possible competitor...doh! Oh well best of luck to them.

I could see this being somewhat successful as long as it's intertwined with the Facebook websites. But it will never be able to compete with iTunes as a whole media content package.

Personally I can't stand MySpace or Facebook, and I hope the service either flops or doesn't even get off the ground.

With Facebook's popularity, this could be iTunes' most serious competitor yet.

Not suprised actually

online distro of many a popular thing is now common

let the games begin

until facebook makes peripherals that are as popular as the ipod, and use only facebook music store, itunes doesnt have much to worry about.

Not shocked. I ditched the Facebook a while back after reading the agreements document. I dont sell my info for free to marketing monsters. Makes sense to convert it into a store, thats where it was all going anyway...

With M$ wanting to buy a share of it, and looking at the "Zune Social", can we say merger? M$ wants to tap into what started off as a way to socialize and overtake iTunes. This will be a serious threat as long as Facebook remains cool. Apple better not underestimate this threat, the results could be devistating.

Omg I so f***ing hate facebook.

I guess that was idea of that egghead Ballmer.

Yeah, I am all for competition and fair competition... and whatever posts say "yeah welcome the competition and whatever"

But this is something personal long before this rumor: I hate facebook.

I use to like Facebook a lot more than I do now. Once they came out saying they were trying to compete with MS and started adding all the applications to it, everything became way too cluttered and nasty. I won't be buying anything from them, though I'll probably still keep my account.

I can't see most people going to Facebook for music unless they're already using it.

First, it's like MySpace and in time will pass. Second, it's like MySpace in that none of their monetizing efforts (outside of advertising) really brought in the cash. Third, it's like MySpace in that most of its users are not spenders.

I honestly can't see this working out very well. The iTunes Store is popular not just because of its huge library, but because of how well it works with the iPod and iTunes. Like others have said, this may work for Facebook users, but I doubt new people will register just for the music.

I like facebook more for what it does. People get so defensive against facebook and myspace but to me, I found a few lost friends that moved away and its great to keep in touch. There is nothing else like it. Thats why its so popular.

As for the music idea, I don't believe iTunes has anything to worry about as far as competition goes. They've made there mark deep enough no one is going to effect it.

I love to see strong iTunes competitors if their files run on iPods and good integration with iTunes, like Amazon MP3. If facebook provides that, I applaud them. Apple benefits because it will continue to sell iPods to those customers. If it's tied to the Zune, then who freakin' gives a crap. The Zune will not outdo the iPod...ever. It's too much of a "me-too" product without innovation, so people don't want it.

For the record, I prefer facebook WAY OVER myspace. It's cleaner, has a great interface, and has helped me get back in touch with tons of old friends all the back to elementary school.

********

This is ********... when competitors are going to accept that they cant beat iTunes...Accept it and live upto it....

Competitor? Hah, that's a laugh. This is so a non-issue. I've been losing more and more respect for Facebook and getting close to closing my account. I'd like to see friendly competition, but this will be far from it if anything at all.

I used to go on facebook all the time, and then started using it less. That changed once they made the Facebook webApp for the iPhone. That version doesn't have all the cluttered crap all over. It's clean and neat, like facebook used to be. Facebook is still much better then MySpace, and I welcome the iTunes competition. If Apple were the only company, then there wouldn't be any competition, and no reason to make things better. Competition is good, and like the Prez would say, bring it on terrorists Facebook.

skwoytek said:

I can't see most people going to Facebook for music unless they're already using it.

First, it's like MySpace and in time will pass. Second, it's like MySpace in that none of their monetizing efforts (outside of advertising) really brought in the cash. Third, it's like MySpace in that most of its users are not spenders.

Click to expand...

It's funny how few ways there are to actually generate revenue on the web. Amazon sounds more likely to work than Facebook at selling songs. Let's not forget that iTunes is really the whole package of easy downloads, easy sync to iPods, and easy digital jukebox. Selling songs doesn't compete on all the levels of iTunes. iTunes worked because of the seemless product and I don't see that duplicated yet.

I will try this iTunes competitor out of curiosity but I seriously doubt it will change my iTunes usage.

Why is it when anyone tries to compete with anything Apple it receives negative feedback? What's wrong with healthy competition? If they can surpass what Apple has achieved with iTunes then good for them. The best of luck to them.

(And I am a big Apple supporter but if another party pushes the envelope then so be it.)

Hmm, well, Yahoo Finance ran an article saying that this rumor is false.

http://biz.yahoo.com/paidcontent/071005/1_315499_id.html?.v=16

According to them, Facebook is actually going to be working with iTunes.

I don't see how the music store is going to leverage any advantage from the Facebook membership. Either it's cheaper/better or it's not.

If the hypotetical store will be as hard to use as Facebook itself, I don't see a great success. They do have loads of people constantly logging in/checking stuff though, so it might be easy to get them buy a song or two at the same time.

My personal wish is to keep Facebook moneyfree (well, sponsors etc is fine).

So for an old fart like me (31 yrs old and counting), can someone explain Facebook? Is it basically like a myspace.com for older kids or something? How does it differ from myspace?

Stupid. Facebook just stay in your own territory. It doesn't need another application. AHHHHH

irun5k said:

So for an old fart like me (31 yrs old and counting), can someone explain Facebook? Is it basically like a myspace.com for older kids or something? How does it differ from myspace?

Click to expand...

It's very similar to MySpace, but its interface is a bit cleaner and generally easier to use. It's also a much more private networking tool, because by default, unless you are friends with someone, they can't see your profile. However, Facebook releases your information to third parties for research etc., and some people really don't like that. Otherwise, it's essentially the same age group that uses it.

Matt