By Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm.
Twitter is all over the music tech news today, but Facebook just quietly rolled out another social music feature too: the ability to specify what you are listening to — you know, the same way the new Twitter #music app lets you say what’s #NowPlaying.
When you post a status update on Facebook, a new option appears that looks like a little smiley face, right alongside the other icons for who you are with, where you are, and what you are looking at (in the form of an image). Now, you can add how you are feeling or what you watching, reading, listening to, drinking, or eating, with the option to select from pre-filled options or enter your own text:
In the case of the music feature, Facebook appears to be pulling from likes and possibly listening activity, because I do in fact Like Slint, Pulp, and Beck, as well as the other artists included in the pre-filled selection.
When you post the status update, little headphones appear next to it, like this:
That looks to be all there is to this new feature.
However, it’s interesting that Facebook elected to roll out a “what I’m listening to” feature a couple of hours after Twitter rolled out #NowPlaying as part of its new music app. Competition appears to be heating up between these two in their efforts to convince us to divulge everything about ourselves at all times, in real time.
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