Last year Facebook began advertising a new role: head of music publishing. In January ex-Warner Music Group executive Tamara Hrivnak left Youtube to take up the position.
It was a pretty obvious sign that Facebook, a social network with nearly two billion users, are making moves towards somehow incorporating music into their platform. Today the story deepened as they began advertising for a second role.
Are Facebook making a move towards streaming or music publishing on their platform? The hiring of two new executives all but confirms it.
The hiring of Hrivnak as a licensing administrator has been revealed as the predecessor to bringing a high-end music lawyer on board. Facebook’s new role is that of a Legal Director of Music Licensing, based at its HQ in Menlo Park, California
What will happen once Facebook throws their considerable weight into the already tenuous world of music streaming? At this point, the viability of the model is all but certain despite the voices of some despondents, so it’s natural that the company would have waited until the experimental stages were drawing to a close before showing their hand.
It’s all too easy to remember their acquisition of Instagram for $1billion once the photo platform had reached it’s height, and look at Instagram now.