Facebook To Stream Official Music Videos From Next Month, In A Challenge To YouTube: Report

Facebook Inc FB is reportedly set to introduce officially licensed music videos on its social networking platform in the United States, posing a potential challenge to Alphabet Inc’s GOOGL GOOG video streaming subsidiary YouTube LLC.

What Happened

The San Francisco-based company is scheduled to debut licensed music videos next month, TechCrunch reported Tuesday.

Facebook has set an August 1 deadline for video submissions, failing which it would create a page on its own for the videos, according to the 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 respective Pages, which fans can access by clicking on the Page’s Videos tab.

An excerpt from an email explaining how music videos will be shared on Facebook leaked on social media.

Artists cannot fully share their music videos on Facebook at the moment due to licensing rights but can publish short previews.

Why It Matters

Music Business Worldwide (MBW), an industry information portal, citing a report by Swiss non-profit organization IFPI, stated that YouTube accounts for 46% of all music streaming listening time globally — excluding China. 

The San Francisco-based company claims to have paid out more than $3 billion to the music industry in 2019 from ads and subscriptions.

Facebook was reported to be pursuing deals for rights to music videos with major music labels such as Vivendi SA-owned VIVEF Universal Music Group, Sony Corporation’s SNE Sony Music, and Warner Music Group Corp WMG last year.

Price Action 

Facebook shares traded 0.4% higher at $240.75 in the pre-market session on Wednesday.