Facebook up-date

Facebook has launched its new "Listen With Friends" service, which lets users listen along to music together. Up to 50 users can listen and chat at the same time while one users acts as DJ, ushering in a new era of social listening - something that seems increasingly rare in the iPod age.


Users will be able to click a musical note next to their friend's name on the site to join their listening group, but they will need access to the same streaming service - either Spotify or Rdio at this time - for the function to work. "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," wrote Facebook's Alexandre Roche in a blog post on Thursday. 


 The announcement is the latest in a series of moves by the social giant to pin down users to its site for all social activities. At its 2011 F8 conference, Mark Zuckerberg introduced its plans to integrate music services such as Spotify into its new live stream.