Facebook launches 'Listen With Friends' service

Facebook have launched their new 'Listen With Friends' service, it has been announced.

Users of the social networking site will be able to listen to music at the same time as their friends and discuss the tunes using Facebook Chat, with PC Mag reporting that up to 50 people will be able to listen and talk about the tracks at the same time.

A musical note will appear next to Facebook users' names whenever they are listening to a track to notify their friends, who will then be able to select the 'Listen with' button to hear the song they are listening to.

In a blog post published today (January 13), Facebook product designer Alexandre Roche said of the 'Listen With Friends' service:

You can listen to the same song, at the exact same time—so when your favorite vocal part comes in you can experience it together, just like when you're jamming out at a performance or dance club

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However, the service will only work if both parties have access to the same online music programmes. At the moment, only Spotify and Rdio can be used in conjunction with 'Listen With Friends', although ZDNet claims that more services are set to be announced in the future.

In September last year, Facebook and Spotify joined forces as part of a new initiative set up by the social networking site. The new features gives users access to over 15 million songs, and will also allow them to see what tracks are trending on the site, as well as letting users share music with friends, as part of a free service.