I’m a singer! Can I still live stream my own music on Facebook?
Hey friends,
I need to prefix this blog by stating that I am not an expert in this field. I am a singer/songwriter, just like you, who has been chasing this dream for the past 15 years.
The following article is in response to Facebook’s new rules, drawn from my research on this matter over the past couple of days, and how I interpret that Facebook will be moving forward. I will be citing official statements from Facebook, and referencing unofficial public statements made by CD Baby’s SVP of Marketing, Kevin Bruener. (NB: I am in no way affiliated with Facebook, nor the CD Baby Management team.)
Recently, Facebook (re)released new guidelines about their terms of service (ToS), which sent the music community into meltdown.
Unless you have been living under a rock - or are one of the lucky few who seem to have quit the FB drug early - you have probably noticed a shift in the conversation around live streaming over the past week. Artists who were once oversaturating your feed with posters for digital streaming events, and preaching the benefits of them, are now replacing those words with outrage, and anxiety-ridden posts.
For those of you who are visual learners: I’ve actually made a comprehensive video response on what we are about to cover on this blog that can be found here. For those of you who prefer to learn from reading, do a little scroll, because I’m about to break it down below.
The paragraph that follows is Facebook’s updated TOS, and can be credited as the culprit for the widespread confusion.
“You may not use videos on our Products to create a music listening experience.
We want you to be able to enjoy videos posted by family and friends. However, if you use videos on our Products to create a music listening experience for yourself or for others, your videos will be blocked and your page, profile or group may be deleted. This includes Live.”
With very little clarification from Facebook, and lots of room for interpretation, it is no wonder why so many people jumped to conclusions and have spent the last couple of days pulling out their hair and complaining... very bitterly, and dramatically online.
What on earth is a "live listening experience"? How will this affect my live stream? Will I still be able to work? What do Facebook's new rules mean? Can I still play covers? What if I own the master and publishing?
Unluckily for us, this does mean that we will need to alter how we are using the platform - but it doesn’t mean that we have to stop all together.
First off, we have to tackle understanding what Facebook means when they say a “live listening experience”.As Kevin Breuner (SVP of Marketing, CD Baby) informed us, in his unofficial statement on this: “These policies have been in place since 2018, but what they are trying to do is clarify what they mean by a “listening experience.” Basically, Facebook does not want users to try and turn the platform into Spotify or YouTube Music, where you open it up and push play, and then go about your business. They want content where people are actively engaged, watching, commenting, and sharing.” He also said that we can not just start a ”FB livestream and just stream your music through it like it’s Spotify.” With this in mind, we can draw the conclusion that a live listening experience would be considered an experience such as one that you would have while listening to music on Spotify, Apple Music, etc. By this I mean, an activity with very little engagement from the listener, as it is often something that is played in the background while the listener completes other tasks. Facebook does not want, nor does it have the capacity, to become solely a streaming platform.
Live shows that are live streamed are an engaging experience for the audience watching. They have some of the highest engagement and retention when comparison with other types of facebook posts. I believe it’s also safe to conclude that users who are tuned into facebook to watch a live stream will be more likely to spend more time on the platform, and interact more frequently with the content, than users who are not. More time spent on facebook means more adverts in front of the audiences eyes - and you don’t need to have watched “The Social Dilemma” (2020, Netflix original documentary) to know that we, the audience, are the product being sold to advertisers. More time on their platform translates to more adverts seen, and more money for the monster.
So, this clears up the problem of whether or not we will be allowed to live stream a show where we are playing music, live. We can! In fact, according to Kevin:“This does not impact you going live to play music to your fans. Facebook has been launching new tools (like Facebook Stars) to make that experience even more beneficial to artists (your fans can tip you during a live stream). They’ve also made some great improvements to the comment section during a live stream that make it more fun and interactive as a fan.”
Kevin goes on to confirm that “your video MUST have visual motion like your official music video.” but that we “cannot post an art track video of your song (album art image with music playing)” or “a video with a static image and the music playing (like a peaceful nature image with music). It’s the same concept as an art track, but worth clarifying”. This leads us to believe that official music videos, and vlogs containing our music in the background, will not be a problem...
However, we would be silly to stop there. We must now dig deeper and understand what music we are allowed to play live on Facebook and - while this is only my interpretation of the text - we have every reason to be wary of playing music we do not own the publishing rights to and, in some cases, songs that we have released and previously distributed. Stick with me here.
Many people assume that Facebook runs in a similar way to YouTube, but this is simply not the case. Youtube has complex systems in place to monitor and ensure that songwriters and intellectual property rights holders are protected. When someone plays a cover on youtube, the video will be flagged - and in most cases, will not be removed. The monetization revenue made from this video will then be used to pay the publishing/copyright holders what they are owed. Unfortunately, Facebook was never created to be a video platform. This is something they have evolved to incorporate as the demand for it grew - and while they provide an incredible opportunity for organic reach and growth, they lack the foundational systems needed to legally incorporate copyrighted material in the videos that are featured on their platform. At least, they do at the moment.
Until they fix this, it’s my professional opinion that if you decide to continue using Facebook as a platform to live stream your online shows, and continue to play music that you have previously released and distributed: that you should contact your distributor ASAP and request that they stop collecting royalties for you on behalf of social media platforms. If you don’t, and your distributor and publisher are doing a good job, your videos that feature live versions, and fully produced versions (music videos, or vlogs with background tracks) of your songs will be flagged and potentially deleted from the platform. This may, or may not, result in having your page or group deleted. Again, this is only my interpretation of the text.
It’s also my professional opinion that you should remove cover songs from your sets in the future, if you continue to live stream on Facebook. I believe that this is eventually what they will start removing - and if you have a cover within the midst of your set: this may affect the entire performance. I also have theories about how this could affect your monetization revenue in the future from the FB platform, but this is already turning into a novel - so if you want to hear more about that: please watch the video accompanying this blog!
In closing: this is actually a good thing, guys!
Facebook is trying to protect songwriters, and intellectual property rights holders, and we can rest assured that they will not be cracking down on removing live streams any time soon. As long as you take precautions in the types of videos you are releasing on your pages, you shouldn’t run into any problems.
I hope that helped clear things up for you and would love to connect with you further! Find me on youtube if you’re interested in following more content like this in a visual way: I create new DIY Industry videos weekly :)
Let us know how you feel about the *new* rules in the comments below?
Resources:
Read Facebook’s Music Guidelines here.
Read Kevin Breuner’s unofficial statement here.
Watch my youtube breakdown of what we talked about in this blog, here.
About the author:
Joey Clarkson is a Canadian Singer/Songwriter living in London, UK. She has produced 3 albums, has been featured on BBC Radio and London Live T.V., and has had past singles place her as a runner up in the AAA/Alternative category of the International Acoustic Music Awards, nominated in the AAA/Alternative category of the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, and land her a regional award in CMW and Astral media's prestigious national competition RadioStar. She is now focusing on producing new music alongside a career in voice over work, and is building a collection of DIY Music Business inspired videos on Youtube for independent musicians.
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