Billboard reported yesterday that Facebook is "reaching out to the major labels and scheduling meetings to discuss the potential implementation of a music acquisition service with the popular social networking site." The music trade magazine also noted that Facebook has been rumored to take this action before with stated deadlines passing and no action taken. According to Billboard, the social networking site also already has portions devoted to creating new pages for artists to create profiles with links to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iTunes Store, an aspect News Corp. (NYSE: NWS)'s MySpace site created long ago via alternate digital stores.

The prospect of both Facebook and MySpace creating services to offer fans direct access to music is something analysts are saying will boost the music industry. James McQuivey, a Forrest Research Analyst, has recently commented that social networking will become the "primary way consumers will acquire digital downloads in the near future" because consumer profiles will become "music stores where friends sell friends their favorite tracks." As it stands now, neither MySpace nor Facebook has anything remotely resembling this prospect.

The major problem Facebook will face with any new venture in the shadow of MySpace is simply following the massive social networking site. Billboard reports that "MySpace controls the most members at more than 110 million, the most traffic with 109 million unique visits a month, and has the greatest number of artists participating at more than 3 million bands."