Meta’s ‘Music Revenue Sharing’ lets FB creators earn by using licensed music in their content

Meta announced Monday that it will allow Facebook creators to monetize their videos by using licensed music included in its Licensed Music library. The newly-launched program called “Music Revenue Sharing” will feature some notable artists, such as Post Malone, Tove Lo, Grupo La Cumbia, Leah Kate, and Bicep. By using the music of the said artists, Meta said that creators would be able to earn 20% of the in-stream ad revenue, while the rest of the earnings will be split between Meta and the music rights holders. Meta says it has plans to expand the list of licensed music in the future. 

“Music Revenue Sharing is powered by Rights Manager, a video, audio and image-matching tool we developed to help content owners protect their rights and manage their content at scale,” Meta says in its blog post. “In addition, this feature is made possible through our partnerships across the music industry; it’s the first of its kind at this scale, benefiting creators, our partners, music rights holders and fans.”

Meta shared some specifics on how creators would produce eligible videos for monetization. Aside from using the music from the library located in Creator Studio, the creators must be able to create videos spanning at least 60 seconds. As for the content, Meta underscores that presenting the music shouldn’t be the only reason for the video and that it should have a visual component. In addition, creators should be eligible for in-stream ads and meet Facebook’s monetization policies, Community Standards, and music guidelines.

Creators will receive notifications if the song used in the video is eligible for Music Revenue Sharing through the Creator Studio and Support Inbox. Once the monetization eligibility is confirmed and the video is published, another notification will arrive to verify that the video is already earning parts of the revenue. Owners of the videos can also check their earnings via the Creator Studio. Unfortunately, the company states that the feature is not yet applicable for Facebook Reels, though it could be possible that it will extend its availability to the said section in the future.

“Music Revenue Sharing will start rolling out today to video creators globally,” the company adds. “Eligible videos will monetize with in-stream ads delivered in the US to start, and we’ll expand to the rest of the world where music is available on Facebook in the coming months.”

Music Revenue Sharing benefits all parties by receiving portions of the revenue while encouraging creators to move away from copyright infringement, which is now one of the things the social media giant is trying to tackle. Last week, Sweden-headquartered production music company Epidemic Sound started legal action against Meta, saying a thousand of its works are being used on the latter’s platforms.

“This case is about Meta itself actively and directly infringing Epidemic’s works by storing them in its online music library and then making a curated selection of Epidemics’ works available across its platforms,” the music house said. “This case is about Meta creating features which allow and encourage users to easily reproduce and synchronize Epidemic’s music without authorization and without compensation to Epidemic, its songwriters and recording artists.”