• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, September 21, 2011

A day before Facebook is expected to roll out its own music platform, mobile content provider Myxer announced a new social radio service that lets users listen to music together via Facebook. Available on the desktop Web as well as through Android and iPhone apps, Myxer Social Radio will allow people to set up virtual listening rooms where Facebook friends can enjoy music and chat in real-time.

The free, ad-supported service will allow users to make selections from Myxer's 10-million song catalog, as well as automatically recommend tracks based on analyzing their musical tastes through social data, such as their Facebook "Likes."

Users will be able to populate the listening room by adding genres and artists to the room. Once songs begin playing, people within the room will be able to dictate lineups by rating the song with terms such as "lame," "sucks" or "rocks." When a majority of listeners decide they don't like a song, the service will switch to the next track.

If that sounds similar to other Internet radio services, such as Pandora, and especially Turntable.fm, it is. Like the new Myxer service, Turntable.fm features free music-streaming, chat rooms for group listening and the ability to vote on songs -- all through a Facebook portal.

But Myxer founder and CEO Myk Willis told the blog Evolver.fm that the company's competing venture is different in that it's geared to music-sharing among people who already know each other and just want to chill out.

"We're steering the programming in those [listening] rooms based on who is actually listening at that time. Turntable.fm is a great, fun activity, but it's an active thing... this is very passive and lean-back, when it comes to programming."

One feature the company hopes will set it apart from rivals is called Song Stories. It lets people record short videos of themselves talking about a song, and when listeners hear that song, they'll also see the clip.

For Myxer -- which has long offered content, including ringtones, wallpapers, MP3 songs and mobile video -- the service is its first push into Internet radio. Earlier this year, it introduced native apps for Android, iOS and BlackBerry devices, which the company says have since been installed 7 million times. It also touts an existing Web and mobile audience of 15 million monthly visitors.

Myxer Social Radio, announced at the Digiday Mobile conference today, will be widely available in the fourth quarter. While Myxer will appear at Facebook's f8 conference Thursday, a Myxer spokesperson said social radio is a separate initiative from Facebook's own imminent music service.

In a related development, Pandora Thursday unveiled a revamped Web site that it said would offer broader advertising opportunities. These include a new content area that increases the available space for branded "skins," a more seamless experience across its desktop Web and mobile properties, and larger overlay video ads. The redesigned Pandora site was created using the HTML-5 programming language.