Facebook Launches Music Stories Post Format

Facebook may still be frustrating musicians with the limited reach of their posts, but the social media giant has launched a new feature that helps users share and discover new music called “Music Stories.”

What is this thing? Good question. Music Stories is a new post format that allows people to listen to a 30-second preview of a shared song, as long as that song is currently available on a major streaming service. The content is pulled from either Apple Music or Spotify, and can be either purchased from or saved to the streaming service.

The previews are available directly from Facebook, but if you want to hear more you can click through to the streaming service. If you don’t have an account, the preview will be all you can hear without making a purchase (or at least signing up for a free trial).

Using the Music Stories feature is surprisingly simple. Just copy the link to the song or album, then post it to your status update box. This creates a preview that others can interact with. An animated spinning record with a pause button shows as the track is played.

Reach may still be an issue, but Music Stories does provide another avenue for artists and their fans to share new music with the world. Plus, it’s more interactive than a basic text post, and from what we’ve seen it looks like these posts could actually lead to real sales. Whether or not that is true remains to be seen, but we’re optimistic. What do you think?

James Shotwell