Facebook and Music: Tuning Up Your Social Video

Facebook and Sony have signed a multi-year deal to allow users across Facebook and Instagram to use music licensed by Sony/ATV Music in their video content. This is the second such licensing deal that Facebook has made, after making a similar agreement with Universal Music Group (UMG) in December.

Marketers will see a lessening of the creative restrictions placed on the music in their video content. Essentially, music that belongs to the catalogues of Sony/ATV Music and Universal Music Group is now available to be used in videos on Facebook and Instagram, bringing an end to content creators spending long hours scouring royalty free music banks.

So, if you’ve been dying to use a Taylor Swift song on a social video project, now is the time to do it.

Prior to these agreements, using music in videos that wasn’t in the public domain or owned by the uploader (whether it be diegetic or as a soundtrack) was considered a copyright breach, as well as a breach of both Facebook’s terms of use, and would mean the video could be removed or muted.

Facebook’s Head of Music Business Development and Partnerships, Tamara Hrivnak, has stated that the deal will “open up creativity, connection and innovation through music and video.”

Facebook has long seen video as the future for the platform, with Mark Zuckerberg describing it as a trend that’s ‘almost as big as mobile.’ It’s easy to see how this deal will allow Facebook to expand on their video efforts in their Cold War with YouTube.

Social video is an important marketing tool for brands, with higher engagement rates than other social content. In fact, 60% of Facebook users and 50% of Instagram users watch branded video content daily. Adding popular music to social videos will likely increase views, engagement and increase a users personal connection to a brand.

“This partnership is an important first step demonstrating that innovation and fair compensation for music creators are mutually reinforcing,” said Michael Nash, UMG’s Executive Vice President of Digital Strategy.

Universal has also said that this agreement will expand in time to allow users access to ‘a vast library of music across a series of social features,’ though the specifics of these new features remain unclear.