ReverbNation has added a new option to its Facebook ad tool to allow music artists to target users who have listened to similar artists on streaming services like Spotify.

ReverbNation’s Promote It platform simplifies Facebook advertising by framing campaigns in a way that relates specifically to artists. For example, instead providing a number of complex targeting options, as Facebook’s self-serve tool does, Promote It simply asks artists to “name five artists whose fans might like your music.” Now in addition to targeting users who have listed those artists as Likes or interests, Promote It will target users who have recently listened to them on Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody, Deezer or Myspace.

This is possible through Facebook’s action spec targeting option, which is available in beta to Ads API partners. Advertisers can target users who have taken any action in an Open Graph application. In this case, the action is “listened to” and Promote It defines different artists as objects depending on the campaign. This type of targeting could be a powerful component of Facebook’s ad platform in the future, but advertisers have been relatively slow to adopt it, citing low reach and confusion about how it works.

ReverbNation implemented the feature only a week ago, so it does not have results to share. However, another ad provider, Nanigans, recently found that action targeting can result in up to 2.25 times higher clickthrough rates. Nanigans CEO Ric Calvillo tells us his customers have found success by targeting “app use” actions and Pinterest “pin” and “repin” actions, among others.

ReverbNation President and Co-Founder Jed Carlson says the new targeting feature is available for all Promote It campaigns, whether users are promoting a song, a fan page or a live show. Artists do not need to pay extra or take any additional steps for this targeting to be enabled.

Facebook has implemented a “listen” button on artists’ fan pages that lets users instantly stream songs from an artist’s catalog.

The button, which sits between options to Like and message the page below an artist’s cover photo, plays music using whichever Facebook-connected streaming service a person uses most frequently. Users can play and pause a song with the button, but they have to visit the streaming service to skip to the next song or fast forward through a track.

The feature will help users sample music when they visit an artist page for the first time and could help make Facebook a go-to option for people looking for new music, similar to how many people used MySpace in its heyday. Streaming services will benefit from the traffic and artists will appreciate Facebook linking to legally licensed versions of their work. Page tab application companies like ReverbNation and BandPage could suffer, since one of the key features they offer is music players for artists’ Facebook pages. Some artists, who don’t offer their music through subscription streaming services or who haven’t been able to connect their streaming catalog to their Facebook page, will not have a listen button so they might still turn to third-party developers.

Facebook’s new listen button isn’t the only way users can play music instantly from the site. News Feed stories about friends’ listening activity includes an option to play songs, as do search results, the music dashboard and Timeline summaries. These integrations could help Facebook become a media destination site.

Currently, most users visit the site to see what friends are saying or to share something about themselves. They often discover news, photos, videos and music in the process, but they don’t tend to think of going to Facebook for learning about a particular topic. As users discover features like the listen button, they might be more likely to utilize the social network as a media hub or even a search engine.

Facebook did not provide information about how artists who do not have the listen button on their site could have one implemented.

Social media software company FanRx today added an option for artists to embed their songs from Spotify on Facebook tab applications using the company’s free Facebook Page Builder.

This feature is possible as a result of the new Spotify “play button” announced today. Web publishers who include a short piece of code on their sites can display a button that lets registered Spotify users begin streaming music instantly. FanRx, formerly known as BandRx, was a launch partner and so is the first to bring the functionality to Facebook tabs.

Artists choose which songs to feature, then when users click the play button, the song begins playing in the Spotify desktop app — launching the player if it is not already open. Users who do not have Spotify yet will be prompted to download the app and create an account using their Facebook login. (See how it works here.)

Spotify has a free, ad-supported service, as well as subscription tiers up to $9.99 per month for unlimited streaming and additional features. Users must have a Facebook account to join Spotify. The app prompts users to share their listening activity on Facebook through Open Graph integration, but it is not a requirement, and there is an “incognito mode” to temporarily disable sharing.

Since September 2011‘s launch of Open Graph, Spotify songs have been playable from Facebook News Feed, Ticker and Timeline. Users can start and pause music while they browse the social network, and even have an option to listen to a song simultaneously with friends. On artists’ pages, Facebook highlights tracks your friends have listened to.

Now with FanRx, artists can customize which songs to include on their tab applications. Although page tabs are declining in use since Facebook removed the default landing tab option with the Timeline redesign, it is still possible to point ads to specific tabs or share direct links in posts to fans. We’ve seen a number of band-focused applications trying to innovate to maintain relevance.

Spotify opened its platform to third-party developers in November 2011. We could see a similar platform-on-a-platform model from Instagram, which has some APIs available in beta. For example, users can take photos using the Hipstamatic mobile app, then publish them through Instagram, which can then share to Facebook. With Spotify, developers like FanRx can include song widgets in their apps so that users can play music from Spotify, which can publish back to Facebook. The social network might watch Spotify’s growth as a platform and take cues for how it might want to handle Instagram since it acquired the company on Monday.

ReverbNation, which provides online tools for artists and music venues to connect with fans, today introduces an update to its Facebook ad platform so artists can understand how their campaigns perform compared to others in similar genres.

Promote It is ReverbNation’s platform that simplifies advertising terms and frames Facebook campaigns in a way that relates specifically to artists. For example, instead of asking users to decide between broad category targeting and specific interest targeting or enter a list of interest keywords, as Facebook’s self-serve tool does, Promote It asks artists to “name five artists whose fans might like your music.”

Now to help artists judge the success of their campaigns, Promote It shows users how their ad clicks and fan interactions stack up against the average clicks and interactions for artists in the same genre. Promote It product manager Nick Sehn says ReverbNation found campaign performance varied significantly among different genres since launching the tool in August 2011. Sehn says niche genres typically have lower costs per fan than broader genres like pop or rap.

When campaigns perform below average, Promote It gives artists suggestions for improvement. For instance, the tool might recommend using a photo with the artist’s face rather than album art or selecting lesser known similar artists. Sehn says targeting fans of artists that are very popular does not usually work as well as targeting fans of more obscure bands.

These type of insights can be incredibly helpful to people who might not have any advertising experience. Facebook could take a cue from the way Promote It frames ad creation and reporting in easy-to-understand terms. There is also a market for other Ads API partners to focus on one vertical as ReverbNation has with the music industry. Promote It has facilitated more than 75,000 Facebook campaigns in about six months.

Companies that create tab applications for artists’ Facebook pages are employing new tactics like Open Graph integration to counter the loss of landing tabs.

Most page applications have experienced significant drops in daily and monthly active users now that Facebook removed the default landing tab option for pages with Timeline. Apps like BandPage, Band Profile, Vevo for Artists and BandRx – which allow artists to put songs, tour information and commerce functions on their pages – used to make frequent appearances on our weekly top Facebook apps lists. Now they’re some of the week’s biggest losers, according to our AppData tracking service, losing between 80,000 and 670,000 daily active users since Timeline launched for pages on Feb. 29. These numbers are expected to keep falling as more pages switch to the new design, which is mandatory starting March 30.

Some of these apps have already taken steps to maintain relevance. BandPage announced Open Graph integration that shares stories about videos users mark as favorites and concerts they mark as “want to see.”

ReverbNation, maker of Band Profile, announced a suite of new apps for specific functions. The icons for these apps take advantage of the larger thumbnails now available for tab applications. Instead of having a single app with videos, tour dates, merchandise and more, musicians can add individual apps with easy-to-identify icons that users are more likely to click on and use. (See “Play,” “Join” and “Schedule” below.)

Vevo was one of the early adopters of Open Graph on its music video website. The company also offers a tab app for artists, but for now, actions within those apps don’t translate to Timeline. Vevo could do something similar to BandPage and allow users to share their activity like watching videos, commenting and adding favorites.

It’s unclear whether these measures can attract the same level of traffic band apps saw while serving as the default tab for a page, but these Open Graph integrations could increase engagement overall. Previously, users would land on an app the first time they visited an artist’s page, but they wouldn’t necessarily return because interaction with pages typically happens in the News Feed once users become fans. But with Open Graph integration, users might take more action in an app to fill in their Timelines. This activity is also sent to Ticker and News Feed, leading friends to discover the app content and ultimately the artists’ page. We’ll keep an eye on daily active users as a percentage of monthly active users to see if engagement does increase.

Companies that make band apps and other tab applications will have to diversify their offerings now that they can’t rely on default traffic. Developing mobile-compatible experiences — like Wildfire’s recent example — and helping clients take advantage of Timeline and Open Graph seem to be steps in the right direction.

Music video website Vevo sent an email to its users today announcing that they will soon be required to log into Vevo.com using Facebook, The Next Web reports.

The news brings back speculation that Vevo could move from YouTube to Facebook. Vevo’s contract with Google lasts another year, but a possible deal with Facebook could result in an ad revenue sharing model similar to what Google and Vevo have now. A partnership could help Facebook monetize and give it another advantage over Google. Vevo would likely benefit from getting a higher cut of advertising. It currently gives Google 35 percent.

The email to Vevo users says a new version of the site is coming March 9. At that point, all accounts must be connected with Facebook. Streaming service Spotify is another music platform that recently switched to Facebook-only login. The Spotify app has quickly reached 15.9 million monthly active users, according to our AppData traffic tracking service. Vevo’s Facebook app has only 390,000 MAU, but most people access Vevo videos through YouTube, not Vevo.com.

Vevo.com has full Open Graph integration. When users watch music videos, stories are automatically shared to Ticker, Timeline and News Feed. The site incorporates Like buttons and Facebook comments. Google-owned YouTube does not. YouTube also doesn’t require users to log in. But by getting users to watch more videos on Vevo.com or a new Facebook app, Vevo can provide users with more personalized experiences and collect more data about its audience.

We analyzed what future a partnership between Facebook and Vevo would do for the social network here.

Image credit: The Next Web

Dozens of developers have launched Open Graph applications for a range of interests and activities since Facebook expanded beyond “read,” “watch” and “listen” last week.  In our tests we’ve “collected,” “answered,” “recommended,” “nommed,” “wishlisted” and more. Here’s a look at what has launched and what could be to come.

Music

Music apps got a head start after f8 when a few partners gained the ability to auto-publish to Ticker and Timeline. Spotify has dominated since then, but now with Turntable.fm, Soundcloud and others integrating Open Graph, there could be more diversity in how users share what they listen to. Missing, of course, is leading digital music player iTunes, which could not strike a deal with Facebook in 2010 ahead of its Ping launch. Google-owned YouTube isn’t likely to integrate Open Graph either, but Vevo.com activity can be added to Timeline. Pandora, which has partnered with Facebook in the past, is not yet adopting the “frictionless sharing” model introduced at f8. The question is whether users will begin to choose Open Graph music apps over other services, or if they start to appreciate alternatives that don’t share their listening habits.

News

Social news readers were also early to adopt Open Graph because “read” was a pre-approved action. The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, USA Today, Yahoo News and others automatically share what users have read. Culture and entertainment sites BuzzFeed and Wetpaint let readers share their reactions with words like “awesome,” “OMG,” “cute,” “meh,” “LOL” and more. Wetpaint’s custom verbs create some odd constructions on Facebook, but some users might prefer how these sites share just the posts they take action on rather than everything they read. Popular blogs will likely integrate Open Graph to increase traffic, but it’s too soon to tell how Timeline might affect local news organizations.

Travel

There are several apps that have added Timeline features, but none so far that update Facebook’s built-in map feature. TripAdvisor, Gogobot, Wipolo and Where I’ve Been all let users indicate places they’ve traveled to on separate maps. These apps also use different verbs for the same actions — for instance “has been,” “pinned,” “added” and “checked off” instead of “visited” or “traveled to.” Yelp, which was not one of the Facebook partners launching Timeline integrations last week, is the only location-based app we’ve seen that populates Map. Foursquare has not integrated Open Graph yet either, but it is easy to imagine a Timeline app that displays all of a users’ checkins and badges.

Food

Yummly and Foodily have canvas apps that let users share recipes using verbs like “made,” “recommend,” “crave” and “yum.” Foodspotting is a mobile app for users to “spot” the best dishes at restaurants and interact with other users’ food photos with the “want” and “nom” buttons. None of these apps use the obvious actions “cook” or “eat.” Urbanspoon’s mobile app lets users indicate that they “ate at” a restaurant, but doesn’t let users share menu items. We can imagine a number of health apps integrating Open Graph to help users track what they eat, how many calories they consume and other food habits.

Film/Television

Facebook partner Rotten Tomatoes has made frictionless sharing part of its web experience. Users who add the Timeline app are able to “rate” movies they’ve seen and indicate which titles they “want to see.” The same is true for French film site, Cinemur. Although Hulu users streaming video from a canvas app and Netflix users outside the U.S. can “watch” videos, there are not yet any Open Graph apps to share what you’re watching in theaters, for instance. This is an obvious opportunity for IMDB and GetGlue, which let users check into shows or movies they’re currently watching. A number of “smart TV” apps are doing similar integrations to post what people watch to Facebook.

Shopping/Style

A few apps have integrated Open Graph to let users share items they’re interested in. Shopping Mall by Payvment users can “want” things from the canvas app catalog. People can also indicate what they “own.” Lyst.com visitors can “add” clothes, footwear and accessories, and SneakPeeq’s canvas app lets users “peeq” deals on boutique items. With mobile app Pose, people can take and tag photos of their style and “love” other people’s photos. A box on Timeline will track users’ favorite fashion items and brands and display popular items they shared. As with other categories, the obvious verb “wear” hasn’t been put to use yet. This is an opportunity for other mobile apps and major brands. Some Timeline apps like GiftRocket share what users “buy,” “send” or “redeem,” but developers have to be sensitive about automatically publishing stories about purchases given that was a major issue with Beacon in 2007.

Books/Education

GoodReads.com has added Open Graph to help users share what they want to read and ratings of books they’ve finished. E-reader Kobo now populates users’ Timelines with books they’ve read, comments they’ve made and time spent reading. Other apps like Kindle and Nook could do something similar to promote their products on Facebook.

Only two education-oriented Open Graph apps were available at launch. Chegg lets college students add the courses they are taking to a box on Timeline. Grockit is a test-prep site that users can connect with Facebook to share when they answer questions, join study groups and earn badges. It remains to be seen how interested students will be in filling their Timelines with homework activity, but online tutorial sites and flashcard apps could find success with these new sharing mechanisms.

Games

Many games are already very successful on Facebook, but Open Graph presents opportunities for reach and discovery that had been formerly cut off or never available. Words With Friends, CastleVille, Diamond Dash, Bubble Island and Draw My Thing are the few games that have launched Timeline integration. These use the obvious verbs “played” and “earned” to let users share their activity and achievements. We can also imagine games populating Timeline with summaries of time spent, items purchased, characters played most often or combos used most frequently. Additional means of discovery and platform-specific achievements could give Facebook an edge over other platforms like Google+.

Facebook today announced the “Listen With” button, which will allow users to listen to the same song simultaneously. The feature will roll out over the next few weeks, starting with Spotify, then adding other Open Graph music services.

From the chat sidebar, users can see which friends are currently listening to music. Clicking “Listen With” will open the music player and begin the song at the same point the person’s friend is now at. It also launches a new chat window so friends can comment about the songs they share. Listening to music with friends in this way will publish a News Feed story about the activity, according to Techcrunch. Facebook has never shared chat activity with a users’ friends before, but this is similar to how Google+ shares stories when users video chat with each other.

One problem with Listen With is that users will have to use the same app. If someone is using Spotify, friends can’t click to listen to the song in Rdio. According to AppData, Spotify is by far the leading Open Graph music player with 4.6 million daily active users to MOG’s 10,000 DAU and  Rdio’s 7,000 DAU. The Listen With feature is likely to only increase this disparity and make Spotify the defacto music service of Facebook.

The new feature is similar to Turntable.fm and Google+ Hangouts, which facilitate synchronous listening or viewing experiences. Turntable.fm has users choose avatars and join virtual rooms where people take turns playing DJ. The service is more about discovering music through strangers with similar tastes than sharing with friends. Google+ lets users join video chats called “Hangouts” and share YouTube videos that friends can watch at the same time.

If Listen With takes off, Facebook could add a similar option for video streaming services. We could also imagine Listen With activity becoming an option for Sponsored Stories in the future. Promoting a shared listening experience could be quite meaningful for artists.

If Facebook ever made Chat available between users and subscribers, rather than just between friends, Listen With could be an interesting way for fans and artists to interact. Turntable.fm has seen activity spike when popular artists like Diplo, Sir Mix-a-Lot and Talib Kweli joined rooms. However, since opening Chat to users with asynchronous relationships might be tricky for Facebook, celebrity partnerships could end up being Turntable.fm’s way to survive after the launch of Listen With.

Musicians believe Facebook Likes are three times more valuable connections on other social networks, according to a survey by ReverbNation and Digital Music News.

The survey asked more than 2,000 musicians to think about the value of various social connections — Facebook Likes, Twitter followers, mailing list subscribers, among others — and distribute 100 points amongst them to indicate relative value. Facebook came out far ahead of other social networks, likely because of its ability to share a range of media types with fans and their friends.

As music apps and websites integrate with Open Graph, Facebook is likely to expand its influence as a place for people to share and discover new music. The social network introduced a dedicated music dashboard in September to let users see which albums, songs and artists are trending among their friends. With the recently launched Timeline, users can now feature the music they’ve listened to most recently and most commonly over certain time periods.

Musicians have long been active on social networking sites and they account for some of the most popular pages on Facebook. The 250 most popular artists on Facebook have a combined total of more than 2 billion Likes, according to recent information provided by RootMusic, makers of BandPage. Of those artists, 89% use music apps on their pages and 88% add new content to their Wall each week. On average, the Top 250 artists each post to their pages 1.6 times a day.

Image credit: ReverbNation

Movies, music but most interestingly, Black Friday Pages were popular on our list if the fastest growing by the number of Likes this week. There were also a pair of game Pages and football (soccer) Pages on the list, too. Pages on our list this week grew from between 222,600 to 925,800 Likes. We compile this list with our PageData tool, which tracks Page growth across Facebook.

	Name	Likes	Daily Growth	Weekly Growth
1.	Scary Movie	1,167,989	+2,822	+925,834
2.	Target	7,023,171	+73,002	+571,634
3.	Clear	536,638	+94	+535,465
4.	Small Business Saturday	2,767,723	+2,954	+426,503
5.	Titanic	13,486,119	+57,296	+409,479
6.	facebook realesed the new Dislike Button™! Add it Now!! not a fake!	445,351	0	+333,025
7.	Texas Hold’em Poker	53,343,455	+41,798	+312,907
8.	Fast & Furious	11,148,166	+31,290	+298,382
9.	Te quiero ♥… Ver BIEN lejos :D	408,752	+61,101	+296,513
10.	Temptations	306,379	-61	+290,906
11.	Adele	8,875,617	+45,840	+285,565
12.	Burberry	9,747,370	+41,351	+269,563
13.	Macy’s	3,293,424	+1,451	+265,447
14.	Facebook	55,989,019	+36,162	+259,448
15.	Angry Birds	10,155,779	+38,961	+245,763
16.	Cristiano Ronaldo	36,627,265	+34,494	+240,968
17.	FC Barcelona	22,889,852	+33,121	+231,427
18.	I Love My Daughter	723,308	-1,529	+230,356
19.	Levi’s	9,278,885	+96,752	+227,108
20.	LMFAO	8,172,466	+32,817	+222,642

“Scary Movie” grew by 925,800 Likes and appeared to be a Page consolidation, “Titanic” grew by 409,500 Likes and “Fast & Furious” by 298,400 Likes, partly it seemed due to a Blu-ray giveaway. Musicians on the list included Motown singers The Temptations with 290,900 Likes (a consolidation), Adele with 285,600 Likes and LMFAO with 222,600 Likes.

Black Friday Pages started off with Target, which saw 571,600 new Likes thanks to Like-gated Black Friday deals. Then there was Small Business Saturday with 426,500 Likes; the Page promoted local business shopping on Saturday and included Like-gated content. Burberry grew by 269,600 Likes after releasing its new collection on Facebook. Macy’s promoted its Black Friday deals and Thanksgiving Parade and grew by 266,500 Likes. Then Levi’s, which had huge deals and Facebook savings codes, grew by 227,100 Likes.

Games included Texas Hold’em Poker with 312,900 Likes and Angry Birds with 245,800 Likes.

The rest of the list included Clear shampoo with 535,500 Likes, facebook realesed the new Dislike Button™! Add it Now!! not a fake! with 333,000 Likes, Te quiero ♥… Ver BIEN lejos :D with 296,500 Likes and Facebook with 259,500 Likes. Then there was Cristiano Ronaldo with 241,000 Likes, FC Barcelona with 231,400 and I Love My Daughter with 230,400 Likes.