Facebook is looking to jump into the music streaming arena with the launch of its own streaming service, which is expected to compete against newly launched Apple Music and industry leaders Spotify and Pandora.
The company previously started testing ad-supported native videos, which is expected to act as a stepping-stone towards the on-demand audio service.
The social media giant is reportedly in the advanced stages of launching the music-video service with rollout expected to take place in the next few months.
It could outsource Content ID-style system from third party rather than creating it.
The streaming service is expected to be similar to YouTube’s music video efforts, where Facebook will be paying royalties to rights holders and give participating holders a system of registering their content to prevent piracy.
A source familiar with the matter told Music Ally: "It’s a mass land grab. Facebook going into the video space was always going to be an enormous, ambitious land grab and no doubt something they’ve been planning for some time as the potential income from ad revenue will be incredible.
"On Facebook‘s move into monetised video, all of us could see it coming for months," said another source. "We have all been really utilising it in internal testing. It is way, way ahead of YouTube."
