Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) will reportedly host officially licensed music videos on its social media platform in the United States, posing a potential challenge to Alphabet Inc’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) video streaming affiliate YouTube LLC.
What happened
The San Francisco-based company is slated to release licensed music videos next month, TechCrunch reported Tuesday.
Facebook has set a deadline for submitting videos on August 1, in case you don’t create your own page for the videos, according to material reviewed by TechCrunch.
Artists are not required to add their videos manually. Instead, they can enable a new setting that will give Facebook permission to add their music videos to the respective pages, which fans can access by clicking on the Videos tab of the page.
An excerpt from an email explaining how music videos will be shared on Facebook was leaked on social media.
Will Facebook launch an official music video feature for artists to compete with YouTube?
h / t @seaninsound pic.twitter.com/U9Hs9gHcbr
– Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) July 14, 2020
Artists are not able to fully share their music videos on Facebook at this time due to license rights, but may post short previews.
Because it is important
Music Business Worldwide (MBW), an industry information portal, citing a report by the Swiss non-profit organization IFPI, stated that YouTube accounts for 46% of all listening time for music streaming worldwide, excluding to China.
The San Francisco-based company claims to have paid more than $ 3 billion to the music industry in 2019 with ads and subscriptions.
Facebook was reportedly seeking music video rights deals with major labels such as Property of Vivendi SA (OTC: VIVEF) Universal Music Group, Sony Corporation’s (NYSE: SNE) Sony Music, and Warner Music Group Corp (NASDAQ: WMG) last year.
Price action
Facebook shares traded 0.4% higher at $ 240.75 in the pre-market session on Tuesday.
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