Facebook Gaming Expands Free Music Usage to Protect Creators
Facebook Gaming streamers now have more access to licensed music without fear of their content being taken down.
Facebook recently revealed that two tiers of creators on their platform will be given access to a large library of popular music to use in their streams. Users in both the Level Up and Partner tiers can now use music from major labels in the background of their streams. For those unfamiliar with the platform: streamers are able to obtain Partner and Level Up status via a combination of activity, number of followers, and time spent streaming, similar to how Twitch operates its Affiliate Program.
An announcement shared on Facebook Gaming's official blog notes the company has been "working closely with the music industry." It also mentions a number of labels and publishers by name, including Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Kobalt Music Group, BMG, and Merlin.
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Facebook representatives have acknowledged that some songs will still not be eligible for use in this program. However, they've stated that this is a rare occurrence and they are "always working to expand the amount of music that’s available to use." The announcement also goes on to reveal that if a streamer does use a restricted track, a notification will be displayed to notify them of its title and recording artist in order to refrain from usage in future broadcasts.
Facebook Gaming is very firm on the music only being available in the background of streams on their platform as opposed to being a central focus. This means that creators will not be able to host music review or radio show-style broadcasts on the platform. They state that they've made improvements to their audio detection and can now more accurately tell if a broadcast is using music in the background or beyond.
Strangely enough, they then claim that their machine learning-powered audio detection is somehow making life better for users, while some may feel uncomfortable by this technology. In their own words:
We’ve also improved our background music detection. In other words, we’ve gotten a lot better at telling the difference between music in the background of your gaming stream, like when there’s simultaneous gameplay or voiceover (allowed) vs. music that’s the focus of your livestream, like a radio show (not allowed). Better living through machine learning.
You can find more information about Facebook Gaming's music licensing here.
