Facebook is tackling a new niche, which will put it in direct competition with YouTube. From next month, the social network will offer American artists to broadcast their music videos, a sector in which the video subsidiary of Google is an essential reference.
Concretely, the singers have until August 1 to authorize Facebook to directly integrate their videos on their official page, without them having to download them themselves. According to the marketing details obtained by the TechCrunch site, these videos will include both their official clips, added as soon as they are sent by their labels, and the videos in which they appear. If the artists refuse or if they do not react before this deadline, the social network will automatically create a parallel page, entitled "Official Music of / Name of the artist /".
Negotiations with labels
Until now, artists under contract with major labels only had the right to share extracts from their clips on Facebook, and not all. Mark Zuckerberg's company began negotiations with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group last December to obtain rights to broadcast artists' music videos, according to information from Bloomberg. These discussions seem to have been successful in recent days.
It remains to be seen whether Facebook will really overshadow YouTube, which has reigned for years in the music video industry. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the video platform recorded 46% of global music streaming outside of China in 2017 and announced that it would have brought in more than three billion dollars to the music industry in 2019. Music is not the only industry in which Facebook seeks to outperform YouTube. Launched in 2018, Facebook Gaming intends to compete with the Google subsidiary in the field of video game streaming.
