What
As if ruling the social media world wasn’t enough, Facebook are now gearing up to challenge YouTube and Spotify with a ‘comprehensive music strategy‘. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has previously said “the big theme and strategy that we’re executing is we’re going to become video first.” Elsewhere, there’s evidence to suggest that the Social Media giant will also be branching out to music audio, after they posted a job for a Product Manager who will be responsible for managing ‘copyrighted music and videos‘ as separate entities.
Why
Aside from achieving total digital domination, could there be another reason for Facebook’s move into the music licensing world? Well, you many not have noticed but in previous years Facebook’s use of YouTube videos without compensation has been a cause of friction with the industry. Joe Conyers III, VP/General Manager of New York-based rights management company Songtrust, shared his thoughts on Facebook’s motive behind the move:
“This is the response to Facebook realising it needs to improve its relationship with the industry. They face the eventually of our entire industry realising how much money we are losing from the cannibalisation of Youtube via Facebook Video. If they want to be a real player in video, they need to fairly treat copyright holders.”
How
So the big question is: how are Zuckerberg and co. planning to do this? Reportedly the CEO has told shareholders that he believes creators of ‘premium’ video content “need to get paid a good amount in order to support the creation of that content”. Music Business Worldwide previously suggested that the music industry could potentially strike a deal between Facebook and Vevo, but no news of a partnership has emerged.
Who
Facebook’s foray into the music licensing world was first brought to the public’s attention when Music Business Worldwide spotted several music-focused roles being advertised on Facebook’s careers page. Vacancies for the team include: Legal Director of Music Licensing, North America Music Publishing Business Development Lead, International Music Publishing Business Development Lead, Head of Global Intellectual Property Operations. The successful applicants will join newly-appointed Global Music Strategy boss Tamara Hrivnak, a well-respected exec with history at YouTube and Warner Music Group, to form a five-strong core music licensing executive team.
Check out the full job descriptions here.
When
In May of last year, the Social Media giant announced that it had licensed a “limited amount of music” from Warner Music Group to help soundtrack its Slideshow photo/video-sharing feature. Shortly after, in August 2016, the company announced it had “acquire-hired” the staff of “musical selfie” app Eyegroove, which let users add fully licensed song snippets to 19-second videos. Facebook are yet to officially announce their move into the music industry, but we can imagine Spotify and YouTube are already preparing themselves for the tough new rival to enter the competition.
