Facebook announced a new “holistic” partnership with Warner Music Group that allows its users to create, upload, and share music from Warner’s extensive catalog in videos and messages on the social media site, as well as via Facebook-owned companies Instagram and Oculus. Warner Music Group controls the catalogs of big-name artists like Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, and more.
The deal follows up similar agreements between Facebook and Universal Music Group and Sony/ATV Publishing, meaning that the social media giant has now cemented licensing with all three major music labels — companies that control the vast majority of popular music.
The announcement of the deal between Facebook and Warner Music Group was shared via a video on Warner Music Group’s Facebook page.
“The team at Facebook is creating a truly innovative product and is showing real commitment to its participation in the growth of the music business,” Warner/Chappell’s executive vice president of global strategy Eric Mackay said in a statement. “We’ve taken our time to arrive at the best possible deal, one that recognizes the value that music creates on social networks, while empowering our songwriters to reach audiences around the world, in a way that will spark creativity and conversation among their fans. Our incredible catalog of songs will be represented throughout Facebook’s platforms and we’re excited to work together to create new opportunities for both our songwriters and Facebook’s users.”
While the deal does only cover video and messaging, the fact that Facebook has now come to agreements with all three major labels is significant. The company may not immediately be seeking to create an on-demand streaming service to compete with the likes of Spotify or Apple Music, but deals with all major labels may mean the door is open for streaming negotiations in the future. With virtually every streaming music listener already using Facebook’s platform to discover new sounds and live shows — and almost every artist using it for promotion — Facebook has all the data it needs to create a pretty impressive on-demand service — if it wants one.
For now, fans should be excited about being able to create and share video and messages featuring the biggest names in music without fear of copyright strikes and with the knowledge that artists will actually get paid something for the use of their music.
