Music To Facebookers’ Ears: ‘Listen With’ Button Debuts In Chat Sidebar

Facebook announced plans to crank up the music by allowing users to listen to songs their friends are listening to, saying that it began rolling out the Listen With button today and will complete the task over the next few weeks.

The social network will add a Listen With button, which will allow users of music services aligned with Facebook — such as Spotify, Rdio, Earbits, MOG, and Slacker — to use those services to listen along with their friends.

The chat sidebar will highlight listening opportunities by including music notes next to notifications about friends listening to music.

Users will also be able to chat about the songs, and group listening will be available, allowing one Facebook user to serve as a DJ for a host of friends.

For those concerned about privacy or seeing their news feeds explode with music-related stories, Facebook outlined how permissions will work:

Only the people you’ve shared your listening activity with can see when you’re listening with a friend. You can control privacy settings in music apps when you install the app or on your app settings page after you’ve installed the app. You can also remove songs you listened to from your timeline on your private activity log.

The new button seems like follow-through on rumors that had circulated ahead of this fall’s f8 developer conference — people had postulated that Facebook would debut buttons labeled “read,” “watch” and “listen” — leading us to believe that “read with” and “watch with” might come next.

Electronic Arts Debuts Facebook Version Of Risk Game

Electronic Arts’ follow-up to runaway Facebook hit The Sims Social, Risk: Factions, launches today on the social network.

The game faces a two-front battle in trying capture a dedicated niche audience while also keeping up EA’s momentum in the social games space.

Despite being named after a board game like EA’sMonopoly Millionaires, Risk: Factions actually has more in common with The Sims Social as it’s based on an existing video game franchise.

The original Risk: Factions is a downloadable title for Xbox Live and PlayStation Network where players choose one of several “factions” and play against other players or computer-controlled opponents in the classic turn-based strategy game of Risk, which has players attempting to take over an entire world map.

In making the jump to social, EA has adapted the title for speedier play and more engaging multiplayer. Aside from the usual social game “hooks,” such as harvesting resources or matching games for bonus items, the developer has also added features and factions to create what amounts to an entirely new game experience under the same franchise.

Click here to read an interview with EA Producer and Risk: Factions designer Spencer Brooks on our peer site, Inside Social Games.