As opposed to MySpace, who forged a deal with the four major record labels to launch its own digital music venture last month, Facebook already plays hosts to a number of popular music apps on its site. With more than 5 million active users, iLike is by far the most popular, with other apps like imeem, Pandora, and My Music (by Qloud) with user counts in the low six-figures.
So what might a joint venture between Facebook and one of these applications look like? While The Post is scant on details, what seems likely would be a partnership where Facebook either takes an equity stake or gets a cut of revenue produced by the application they choose as their partner.
Through its Great Apps program, Facebook has already demonstrated that it will give certain apps within its ecosystem preferred status. If Facebook were to take a stake in iLike, for example, there are certainly a number of buttons the social network could push in order to make the app more successful and drive more revenue, such as giving iLike more prominence in user’s News Feeds.