Facebook is adding more and more new opportunities for users and, accordingly, new sources of income / E. Razumny / Vedomosti

Facebook is in talks with major music studios about a possible joint business, The Verge writes, citing “multiple sources.” Facebook has already discussed its interests in the music industry with Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group, but the format in which the social network intends to cooperate with the studios is still unclear.

Currently, American users spend more than 40 minutes a day on Facebook. If the network were to have its own music service, that time would increase several times over.

According to The Verge's sources, the negotiations between Facebook and the studios are at an early stage and it is too early to talk about final decisions. A Facebook representative declined to comment on this information.

"Facebook has chosen the right channel - promising and the most widespread," says Vladislav Kochetkov, president of the investment company Finam. "The social network is capable of becoming a serious competitor to the largest existing services - Google Play, App Store." When launching such a service for the Russian part of Facebook, part of the audience may lose VKontakte, although these are unlikely to be significant losses, he says.

Facebook is adding more and more new opportunities for users and, accordingly, new sources of income. So, yesterday Facebook announced that it will start sharing revenue from video advertising with video content producers. The social network expects to attract producers of higher-quality content, as well as the largest advertisers.

Until now, Facebook has placed video ads in its news feed. However, according to Facebook's vice president of business development Dan Rose, such "embedding" of content is not the best way to promote it. Now, "recommended videos" will primarily contain professionally produced content from major media companies, which will be interrupted by video ads - essentially like on TV. Users will see video content recommendations from friends. The new function is designed primarily for smartphone users - they, according to Facebook's own estimates, consume about 75% of video content on the network.

Facebook is ready to give video content producers about 45% of the revenue from selling advertising in videos, writes The Wall Street Journal. This is very similar to the revenue distribution model of the video service YouTube. According to the estimates of Royal Bank of Canada analyst Mark Mahaney, Facebook will earn about $1.5 billion from video advertising next year.

It is not surprising that, observing such a sharp increase in video consumption, Facebook is trying to develop other entertainment segments, including music. The company is already collaborating with the Swedish music service Spotify. Facebook has already tried to integrate music into the social network. In particular, in the social network you can listen to music from artists registered in the network, as well as music, links to which are published in the news feed.

Facebook is considering its own music service