Facebook’s first music play is finally here – with users in selected markets able to include music in their videos from today (June 5).
The social media giant – which has spent recent months striking licensing deals with music companies such as Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony/ATV, Kobalt, ICE, Merlin and SACEM – will also launch a Musical.ly-style Lip Sync Live feature where users can sing along to songs.
Announcing the news by the now familiar method of a blog post from head of music business development & partnerships Tamara Hrivnak and head of product, music & rights, Fred Beteille, the pair said: “Together with the music industry, we are working to enable people around the world to include music in their videos on Facebook, opening up more options for creativity and sharing memories with friends and family. We’re testing this in several markets now and look forward to making it available more broadly soon.”
Songs mentioned in the post as being available for Lip Sync Live include Welcome To The Jungle by Guns N’Roses, Havana by Camilla Cabello, Drake’s God’s Plan and Happier by Ed Sheeran. The feature is likely aimed at attracting younger users to Facebook, with Musical.ly a smash hit amongst teens. Musical.ly was recently bought for £763 million by Chinese tech firm Bytedance.
Whether the news will excite the music biz, which has long wished for Facebook to give YouTube some serious competition in the UGC space remains to be seen. But it seems likely to be just the start of Facebook’s plans for music.
The blog post concluded: “We’re exploring more ways to bring music to Facebook. In the coming months, we’ll start testing options for adding the music you love to Facebook Stories. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with the music industry to create new ways for people to connect and express themselves through music across our family of apps.”
Watch this space…
FOLLOW 
