For years, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been telling investors about a strategy to transform his company into a “video first” organization.
Here at MBW, time and time again, we’ve wondered if, and when, this could one day leave Facebook as a natural YouTube rival like the de facto home for music videos (and also what this could mean for Vevo).
To date, this has not happened. In fact, the prospect of Facebook becoming a hub for music videos appeared to be successful in 2017 and 2018, when major music companies signed global licensing deals with the platform that focused on “social experiences,” but did not seem contain any type of premium music video element.
That is about to change. Starting next month, official (officially licensed) music videos will hit Facebook in the US, and the social media giant is busy trying to convince artists to subscribe.
According to a new TechCrunch report, Facebook page owners linked to artists in the United States have been informed by FB that, if they want to add music videos to their page, they must turn on a switch that allows this setting to be ‘on’ before August 1.
The news comes after Bloomberg reported in December that Facebook was in new licensing discussions with Universal, Sony and Warner specifically about the rights to their music videos.
Beyond changing the lever, artists aren’t required to do much. By enabling this setting, artists give Facebook the green light to add music videos to their page, where they will be visible to fans / followers on the Videos tab.
According to TechCrunch, which has reviewed Facebook’s marketing materials, this video library will include the artist’s official videos, as well as videos featuring the artist. Once enabled, artists can manually remove their videos from this area.
If artists choose not to enable the feature before August 1, Facebook will create a separate page on their behalf for their ‘Official Music’.
Facebook will control this page, which is reportedly to be accessible via Facebook Watch and “a new music video destination” on the platform.
According to Facebook’s first quarter 2020 income statement, the website attracts 2.60 billion monthly active users globally; Instagram has long said that it reaches more than a billion people.Music business worldwide
