Why Facebook Audio was removed

We have been hearing a lot lately about people increasingly finding new music through social networks. Facebook Audio was a free application (not created by Facebook) that users could add to their profile pages. It would then allow users to link to and stream music to their friends based on songs they liked.

"Over 50 percent of users said they actively surf social network sites to discover new music and artists." (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20070731/tc_nf/54266)

Obviously, 99% of the music being linked to and streamed in the Facebook Audio application was illegal. I doubt more than 1% of Facebook users actually contacted the artist, publisher, and/or label to obtain permission to link to the tracks.

So when the RIAA contacted Facebook Audio earlier this month and asked them to remove links to certain outside web sites, Facebook Audio never responded. Facebook (proper) had no other choice but to kill the application (which was actually quite popular).

The approach on this was dead wrong. Even if there was massive streaming of illegal content going on, think of how many people were encountering new music, listening to those tracks, and either buying or more likely searching their nearest P2P network for a download of the album. That's a missed marketing opportunity. The best way to gain a fan of music is not to make them pay for an album they have never heard but to let them listen to it and entice them to buy. Even if they don't buy the tracks, if they become a fan, you have just built a long term market for all kinds of products in relation to the artist.

Too bad Facebook doesn't have the clout that Google does to go head-to-head with the RIAA and copyright in general. Its almost like someone needs to help the RIAA succeed inspite of themselves.