Facebook might look to add music videos to their social media platform, making them a much bigger threat to other video sites.

Facebook video has been a threat to YouTube since it launched however the two have managed to maintain their own video platforms individually, for the most part, until now. But could music be the turning point?

Facebook videos mostly feature skits, memes, news and TV clips. Whilst the platform is open to a wide range of videos, being built in to a social media site has defined the content that is most widely viewed. Because of this it hasn’t been much of a visible threat to YouTube and their wide range of content.

According to reports, Facebook are now in talks with the major music labels for licensing deals. Their existing deals cover the licenses for background music used in users videos. However, according to Bloomberg, Facebook are now testing the distribution of official music videos.

With Facebook’s massive user-base (almost 1/4 of the world population) it could be major for artists. Music streaming whilst browsing Facebook could mark an even bigger uptake to the already massive music streaming industry.

However, this would represent Facebook rearing it’s head fully towards YouTube. YouTube is the internet’s primary hub for music videos and has a giant audience for music listening. They faced potential losses when Vevo launched their own service but that quickly became no threat.

In the case of Facebook though, they have a massive digital audience and if their video platform expands it could lead to conversions away from YouTube. It could especially be threatening to their hold on internet music videos if it expanded to Facebook owned Instagram as well.