New Spotify, Facebook Integration Angers Some Users

Too Tight With Facebook?

Last week (NET NEWS 9/22), MARK ZUCKERBERG took the stage at FACEBOOK's f8 developer conference to introduce a "master plan for the social network." Part of what was unveiled was a tight integration of SPOTIFY into FACEBOOK, which requires SPOTIFY users to have a FACEBOOK account, and to use that account to sign in.

The reaction to that move has not been universally loved.

THE NEW YORK TIMES reports, "For months various digital music services have been jealous of the close link that appeared to be developing between FACEBOOK and SPOTIFY, the European company whose cloud music player finally arrived in the U.S. in JULY. MARK ZUCKERBERG, FACEBOOK’s chief executive, was a vocal fan of SPOTIFY, and when the social media giant announced a string of new features on THURSDAY, DANIEL EK, SPOTIFY's chief, was right there on stage with him."

SPOTIFY users have complained loudly, and SPOTIFY "issued two statements about the change, the second one saying, in part: 'As most of our users are already social and have already connected to FACEBOOK, it seemed logical to integrate SPOTIFY and FACEBOOK logins,'" noted THE TIMES.

A FACEBOOK representative told THE TIMES that "SPOTIFY chose to provide a social music experience to all of its users so it’s easy to discover music with friends from the get-go. This is similar to how apps built on FACEBOOK work, such as FARMVILLE and WASHINGTON POST READER, where every user is a FACEBOOK user. When users log in to an app with FACEBOOK, the expectation is set upfront that they will be engaging in social mode within the app."

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