Facebook is about to release a new feature that will “listen” to your TV shows and music.

Lend me your ears 

Facebook announced the news in a blog post, explaining the feature will run via its mobile app.

If a user is watching TV or listening to music that the Facebook app recognises, users can post this information on their profile, or send to their friends directly.

Stop the music

“Here’s how it works: If you’ve turned the feature on, you’ll see an audio icon moving on the screen when you write a status update.

“If the feature finds a match, you can then choose to add the song, TV show or movie to your post,” wrote Aryeh Selekman, Product Manager at Facebook.

When a user shares music, their friends will see a 30-second preview of the song.

Crafty or creepy?

The feature is a direct challenge to Shazam and will potentially give Facebook a new stream of demographic data it can sell to advertisers.

The move also marks another step in Facebook's aggressive move to dominate all corners of social (read here about Facebook's plans to build a Snapchat killer).

However not all users might be comfortable with Facebook listening to their music and TV shows, while the concept of an always-on microphone and automatic updates have raised privacy concerns.

Will Facebook stop the music? Watch this space. 

To find out more visit newsroom.fb.com. 

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