Facebook has finally made its move in music.
The social media giant, which boasts more than 2bn monthly active users, has today (June 5) announced that its users can now legally upload and share UGC videos which feature licensed music in selected markets.
In a blog post, Facebook’s Tamara Hrivnak, Head of Music Business Development & Partnerships, and Fred Beteille, Head of Product, Music & Rights, revealed:
“From weddings and holidays to everyday celebrations, the special moments in life are often ones we associate with music. Together with the music industry, we are working to enable people around the world to include music in their videos on Facebook, opening up more options for creativity and sharing memories with friends and family.
“We’re testing this in several markets now and look forward to making it available more broadly soon.”
And that’s not the only music-related news from Facebook today.
The service has also announced the launch of ‘Lip Sync Live’ (pictured), which sounds very much like a direct rival to karaoke app Musical.ly.
“We’re testing [licensed music in UGC] in several markets now and look forward to making it available more broadly soon.”
Facebook spokespeople
“We’re starting to roll out Lip Sync Live, which lets you lip sync to songs from forever favorites like “Welcome to The Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses to new hits like “Havana” by Camila Cabello,” said Hrivnak and Beteille.
“With Lip Sync Live, you can express yourself with music from a variety of genres in real time. So whether you prefer songs like “Happier” by Ed Sheeran or “God’s Plan” by Drake, Lip Sync Live lets you bring friends and family into spontaneous musical moments.
They add: “After selecting a song from the song list, you can also add a description and customize your video with masks or a background. When broadcasting with Lip Sync Live, friends will see the artist and song highlighted on the video and can tap to follow the artist on Facebook.”
The likes of Universal Music Group, Sony/ATV, Kobalt, SESAC/Rumblefish, Warner Music Group and more have signed multi-territory music licensing deals with Facebook over the past year.
Facebook says that more music announcements will be coming to its platform soon.
Hrivnak wrote on the platform earlier today: “Together with our amazing music partners, we’ve been building a foundation for new music experiences on Facebook. Today we gave an update on these efforts: we’re starting to roll out the ability for people to add music to the personal videos they share and testing a new feature, Lip Sync Live.
“We’re just getting started. We look forward to continuing to work with the industry to bring music into the ways people share moments, memories and connect across our family of apps!”
Musical.ly launched in 2014, and claims over 100m active users worldwide.
The startup was last year acquired by Chinese company Beijing ByteDance Technology Co. for a reported $800m.Music Business Worldwide
