Meta's New 'Music Revenue Sharing' Feature Allows Creators To Earn Money For Facebook Videos With Popular Music For The First Time
Source: Meta
Through a new Music Revenue Sharing feature, creators can now earn money for Facebook videos with licensed music — something that wasn't possible before.
How It Works
Creators who use music from Meta's Licensed Music library, which includes songs from artists like Post Malone, Tove Lo, and Grupo La Cambia for eligible videos, will receive 20% of the revenue generated from in-stream ads, while music rights holders and Meta will split the remainder.
For videos to be eligible for Music Revenue Sharing, they must meet Facebook’s monetization policies, Community Standards, and music guidelines, be at least 60 seconds long, and feature a visual component. Currently, Reels aren’t eligible.
According to Meta, this is a first-of-its-kind feature within the music industry. Whether that is valid or not, Music Revenue Sharing is a forward-thinking initiative that benefits creators and music rights holders alike.
What It Means For Creators & Music Rights Holders
As sound, specifically music, plays a key role in helping creators make their video content more engaging, creators often will incorporate popular or trending music. However, this can lead to that content being demonetized or being taken down for copyright infringement. Now, creators have the flexibility to add popular and trending songs to their videos with the added benefit of still being eligible for monetization. This results in fewer situations where they must choose whether to use popular music that makes their content more engaging but can't be monetized or to choose royalty-free music that can be monetized, but may not resonate with audiences.
With music rights holders getting money by licensing songs for social media content, they can increase revenue streams and get more exposure when their music is incorporated into videos by creators that may have established audiences and a large reach.
As Reels are not currently part of Music Revenue Sharing, the potential impact of this feature is somewhat limited. Thanks to Meta's all-out push for short-form video, most creators share Reels more often than standard, video-on-demand. If Reels were eligible, more creators and music rights owners would be able to make money from the new revenue share initiative. With how much Meta is in on Reels, it's almost guaranteed that Reels will be included.
The Intersection Between Social Media & Music
Because of the continued intersection between social media content and music, other social media platforms will likely explore similar initiatives that empower creators to use popular music that lets them still take advantage of available monetization tools while compensating musicians when their songs are being used. In the future, I think Meta and other platforms that launch initiatives like this will implement marketplaces to let creators know how much they can make when they use certain songs.
Music companies who demand higher payouts for licensing songs or more equitable deals could pose a challenge. Meta has already faced some of this. Swedish music company, Epidemic Sound, sued them for $142 million, and Kobalt let their deal with Meta expire, resulting in the removal of over 700,000 songs across Facebook and Instagram.
