INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Facebook users will no longer have their uploaded videos with copyrighted background music taken down thanks to a slew of deals with all
the major record labels plus many indies.
Facebook is also starting to test a feature designed to steal users from teen sensation app
Facebook new Lip Sync Live lets users pick a popular song to pretend to sing on a Facebook Live broadcast
Hundreds of songs will be available to start, including &Havana& by Camila Cabello, &Welcome to The Jungle& by Guns N Roses, and &God Plan&
by Drake.
When users upload videos with music with the new rules in effect, they&ll be quickly notified if that song is allowed via the
deals and fine to share, or if their video will be muted unless they submit a dispute to the copyright holder who then okays it through
Facebook Rights Manager tool
Facebook will compensate artists and labels whose music is used, but it wouldn&t disclose the rates or whether they&re calculated by upload
or video view.
Facebook Sound Collection lets you add no-name music to videos
The launch is separate from the Sound Collection feature
Facebook announced in December that only lets users add sound effects or no-name music to their videos
Facebook won&t be offering a tool, at least not yet, that lets users select popular copyrighted music to add to their videos — a feature
TechCrunch has been calling for and that was recently prototyped for Instagram.
That unfortunate, as most users don&t have the editing tools
to add music before uploading a video, especially not from their phones
But at least if there a song playing on a stereo in the background, users won&t get their videos blocked like before
Luckily, Facebook says in the coming months it plans to &start testing options for adding the music you love to Facebook Stories.& That
could use the same design as the Instagram feature we reported.
Instagram unlaunched music stickers prototype lets users add popular songs
to their Stories.
Today announcement is a big step in right direction for Facebook as it seeks ways to encourage original sharing
A shaky, off-the-cuff video from a friend can be tough to watch in the feed, particularly if it longer than the 15 second clips people now
But with the right soundtrack, a boring clip becomes epic, or a nice one becomes truly sentimental
Music-equipped videos could boost watch time and engagement on Facebook without relying on viral pap the company has demoted in service of
users& mental well-being.
Facebook vs
Musical.ly
Facebook has had a tough time keeping teens on its social network, as evidenced by declines in popularity amongst the demographic
according Pew survey data
Though teens trying to look cool might say they use Facebook less than they actually do, the responses reveal a downward trend for the app
amongst the youth.
One app that had no problem recruiting them is lip syncing app Musical.ly
It rife with concerning, possibly Child Online Protection Act-violating videos of tween girls dancing to risqué pop songs
But the opportunity to perform without necessarily having singing talent and the easy to grasp content prompts have grown the app to 200
million registered and 60 million monthly active users.
Facebook wants to hook those kids as soon as they&re 13 so they become lucrative
So Facebook is now testing Lip Sync Live in several markets
Users first go to broadcast Live, select the Lip Sync Live option, select a song, mouth the words while adding filters and effects during
the stream, and then can permanently share the resulting video
The Live With feature for co-streaming with a friend lets people duet on their favorite jam
Viewers can tap on titling for the song and artist to follow that musician on Facebook, though I think there should be a way to tap through
to hear the song on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube Music.
It going to be tough for Facebook to suddenly become cool enough for kids to
enthusiastically lip sync, especially since it requires going Live which notifies their friends
That plea for attention could make some users too shy to strut their stuff on camera
Lip syncing might work better for static videos where people can be sure they looked good enough before sharing, or within Stories that
friends have to actively go watch.
Music is one of the most core ways human share and connect
It actually surprising Facebook has stayed at arm&s-length from the record industry for so long.
iLike music streaming app was one of the
most popular on v1 of Facebook platform, but the tech giant moved in a different direction
It also shut down landing tabs in 2012 that bands used to stream music from their Pages with apps like BandPage
And though Spotify got its big break in America through viral distribution in Facebook now defunct desktop sidebar ticker, Facebook never
made a move to invest in or acquire the startup that since gone public.
At least, it good to see Facebook concentrating on the social side
of music now that it has label deals in place rather than trying to build a Spotify competitor of its own
If it can legally build a way for anyone to add soundtracks to their videos, we might watch a lot more of them
Not only would that acclimate us to more video ads, but it could let friends express a different side of themselves with the emotional power
of pop music.
Instagram code reveals upcoming music feature
Facebook and Warner Music ink recorded and published music deal for videos
