• D: All Things Digital , Wednesday, December 24, 2008 11:45 AM

Project Playlist has found itself in dire straits after MySpace and Facebook disabled the streaming music app from their sites. MySpace disabled the service five days ago while Facebook finally decided to follow suit yesterday. The official statement from Facebook PR reveals that the Recording Industry Association of America initially contacted the popular social network last summer requesting the removal of the Project Playlist application for copyright violation and then recently made the same request again. Facebook said it referred the RIAA's letters to Project Playlist so it could resolve the issue directly with the music organization. In the meantime, the application has been removed from the site.

Peter Kafka at All Things Digital was surprised its took Facebook so long "to face up to reality," as "there was next to no upside for Mark Zuckerberg and company in fighting the big music labels, three of whom are suing Project Playlist." Worst case scenario would see the social net squaring off against the labels, which are potential Facebook partners, and possibly being sued.

Kafka notes that it was less surprising that MySpace was the first to bail on Project Playlist at the label's request given the conflict of interest that exists between the service and MySpace's own MySpace Music, which counts the major record labels as partners.

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