Music Revenue Sharing lets creators use licensed music in monetized Facebook videos
Image Credit: Meta
Facebook’s Music Revenue Sharing feature is a new way for creators to earn money from videos, while using copyright-protected music.
For smaller creators, the options when adding music to videos on platforms like YouTube are:
- Royalty-free music – While there’s plenty of it out there these days, it doesn’t always suit the scene and isn’t widely recognised like chart topping music from popular artists. When used in monetized videos, creators keep 100% of the revenue generated.
- Copyright-protected music – While this music from familiar artists is far more recognisable, the video will be claimed by the rights-holder (the artist/label), thus no revenue goes to the video creator.
Larger creators and film-makers of course have a third option, which is licensing music, but this can requires an established following, the right contacts, contracts and money upfront.
While music rights protection systems, like YouTube Content ID and Meta Rights Manager are great for ensuring artists earn revenue for their work, it’s not always fair for the video creator, when only a small portion of the video is the music.
Facebook’s recently announced Music Revenue Sharing hopes to offer a new option for a select number of tracks and eligible creators. Creators will be able to use licensed music from popular and emerging artist, while earning a share of in-stream ad revenue, which Meta are deeming a “first of its kind within the music industry”. Artists available for use include the likes of Post Malone, Tove Lo, Grupo La Cambia, Leah Kate, Bicep and more.
Music Revenue Sharing is powered by Meta’s Rights Manager, that matches video, audio and images to protect content owners. Creators receive 20% of the revenue share on eligible videos, while the rest goes to rights holders and Meta. There’s certain criteria the creator and the video itself must meet in order to be eligible for revenue, including the video must be at least 60 seconds long and their must be a visual component to the video. Licensed music itself cannot be its primary purpose. Full details and criteria can be found on the Help Center and the Meta for Creators blog.
This change could be seen as a disadvantage for musicians, with less overall revenue going to the artists themselves. However, I believe this feature will mostly be used by creators who would otherwise not licensed music at all in their video, instead opting for royalty-free music. Not to mention the increased exposure from the creator’s following.
Music Revenue Sharing has started rolling out globally and will be applied to videos delivered in the US to start, before expanding in the coming months to the rest of the world where music is available on Facebook.