RCA Music Group is releasing a full stream of Alicia Keys' upcoming album, "The Element of Freedom," exclusively to the artist's 1.2 million Facebook fans. RCA Music has partnered with Involver to stream the tracks from her new album directly from her Facebook Page.

Visitors can listen to tracks for free and place pre-orders in advance of the album's Dec. 15th release. Certain singles will be available immediately to purchase as gifts from the Facebook Gift Shop, a service the social networking site launched last year powered by LaLa.

High Status

Releasing an album on Facebook is a first for the music industry - and yet another sign of the status the social networks have attained with the entertainment industry, corporate brands and even science and tech institutions. Increasingly, such entities are making content available, if not simultaneously with a traditional release, then exclusively on social networks like Facebook.

Last month, more than two-million unique visitors, and nearly three-million total viewers watched MySpace's live stream of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" red-carpet arrivals at the movie's world premiere.

Also last month when the legendary rocker group KISS performed live in Los Angeles, Facebook fans watched via the Ustream service.

Front Row Seats

Perhaps the most significant example of social network's growing influence is the nod NASA made to it when it gave 100 Twitter members front-row seats at its Space Shuttle Atlantis liftoff from Florida's Cape Canaveral.