Facebook Gaming will now allow creators to play copyrighted music

Facebook Gaming has announced that they’re partnering with the music industry to unlock a vast catalogue of songs that can be played by creators while streaming.

This is a really big announcement as recently a large amount of Twitch streamers were hit by DMCA takedown requests.

The agreement includes music licenses from Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Kobalt Music Group, BMG publishing, Merlin and many others.

As of now this is only available for partnered creators, but Facebook is looking to expand it to all other creators.

With the big announcement, there are also a few rules and set guidelines. Facebook Gaming shared the guidelines and other necessary information through an article ‘Making Music & Streaming Easier‘.

Facebook Gaming states that music copyrights are complex and hence are subject to change based on territory or other factors.

If a video is muted or blocked, Facebook Gaming will notify you of the section of your video that’s matching a song. You can then take actions to make it clear. This allows you to understand if a song is restricted.

Also,Facebook doesn’t allow music only streams. In other words, you can stream music in the background while playing a game or something else, but you aren’t allowed to just play music on the stream.

The music copyright agreement covers the livesteam, the VODs and short clips too. However, edited videos of the livestream that are uploaded separately aren’t covered in the agreement.

Users are allowed to play music from any preferred source such as a subscription service or pre-downloaded music from their collection or any other source.

Facebook states about music integration, “We’re always looking for new integration and partnership opportunities, and we’ll keep you posted as new things become available.”

At the time of writing, Facebook has secured music licenses that cover more than 90 countries. The number is subject to change in the future.