Facebook has been not-so-subtly making the move to become a video-first platform for a long time. And now it looks like the social media giant is taking another huge step in that direction with the upcoming addition of Facebok music videos.
The company began sending emails and in-app notifications to music page admins this week. Right now, the ask is pretty simple. In order to show your own officially licensed music videos on your page, you just need to opt-in via your page settings.
The preferred deadline is August 1. After that point, Facebook will presumably begin bringing in officially licensed music videos to the platform. If you don't opt-in on your own page by then, Facebook will create a separate page under your artist name that automatically uploads the videos.
According to Facebook, artists won't need to upload their own videos. In addition to their own music videos, pages will also feature official videos featuring them.
Page owners will be able to edit and remove videos from their page once they've been added.
Well, sort of. The thing about YouTube is you don't really need to do anything other than upload a video yourself. With the new music videos section on Facebook, the videos still need to come through an official channel (like a distributor). This presumably relates to Facebook's licensing deal with major labels and how the company envisions paying rights holders for these video plays.
So when it comes to ease, this new feature doesn't touch YouTube. And a lot of music videos on YouTube are of the "unofficial" variety. Heck, YouTube even just allowed artists to start tracking their reach on user-generated videos featuring their music.
But there's no question Facebook wants to keep eyes on its platforms. Music videos drive a huge portion of music streaming and YouTube pretty much owns the music video space.
Facebook has already greatly restricted the organic post reach related to sharing a YouTube link. Seriously, if you've ever posted a link to YouTube from your music page, you know what we're talking about.
But now it looks like Facebook at least wants to present some sort of officially licensed version of keeping users on the platform.
Facebook has always been a better place to find customers for off-platform transactions than to cash in on them within the app. Especially when it comes to digital content.
Meaning unlike YouTube, we don't hear many stories of artists raking in the money from ads being displayed on their content. And the thresholds for ad share revenue are typically much higher on Facebook.
While the platform recently made a shift to allowing users to charge for their livestreams, it's no surprise that artists aren't typically making tons of money directly from Facebook. Will Facebook music videos tilt the scales for artists? It's a start.
But especially for smaller indie acts — don't expect this to make waves right off the bat. Facebook music videos will certainly be playing catchup to YouTube, where according to Business Insider, 22% of all viewership is for music videos.
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