Facebook's Music Guideline Change Isn't That Big Of A Deal.

 Everyone has been freaking out due to a new change being implemented by Facebook. With the claims to be that musicians won't be able to post their music or live stream their events on Facebook anymore, which in the wake of COVID, seems a little harsh as bands are now moving onto online//virtual concerts.

You can view Facebook's' music guidelines' HERE and this is what is on that page:

Music Guidelines

These supplemental terms apply if you post or share any videos or other content containing music on any Facebook Products.

You are responsible for the content you post

People use our Products to share content with their family and friends. Keep in mind you remain solely responsible for the content that you post, including any music that features in that content. Nothing in these terms constitutes any authorization by us with respect to any use of music on any of our Products.

Use of music for commercial or non-personal purposes in particular is prohibited unless you have obtained appropriate licenses.

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.

Unauthorized content may be removed

If you post content that contains music owned by someone else, your content may be blocked, or may be reviewed by the applicable rights owner and removed if your use of that music is not properly authorized.

You may not be able to post or access videos containing music in every country of the world

We want you to be able to share videos with your family and friends wherever they are, but any music in your video, if it is allowed at all, may not be available in all countries of the world.

 Here are the main sections that should be looked at and taken into consideration:

• Use of music for commercial or non-personal purposes in particular is prohibited unless you have obtained appropriate licenses.
• If you post content that contains music owned by someone else, your content may be blocked, or may be reviewed by the applicable rights owner and removed if your use of that music is not properly authorized.
• 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

So, what this means is people streaming copyrighted music (the 'review' live streams and other similar activities, uploading a music video that has copyrighted music or a compilation) can get posts taken down and could possibly earn you a post block.  The live streams where people play the music in the background (I've done a few of these before) would also essentially be eliminated if Facebook decided to enforce these rules. But they are also in talks of coming back with a new monetization platform for live streamers on Facebook. 

What I have noticed a lot is that the majority of people who live stream as 'DJ's' are people sitting in their bedroom, playing Soundcloud links, and then charging people $1-$20 to have it be played on the live. This is the aspect that I suspect drew the attention of Facebook and had them roll out these new implementations to the guidelines. 

This also means that all of the bedroom DJ's who are using their personal and Alt accounts are now going to have to make an actual Facebook Page if they are to move onto doing live streams that later on would make a profit. But as it is right now, it is a waiting game on the enforcement of the new guidelines. But in the aspect of copyright and having music played on Facebook Live, I really don't think that it will change that much. It is going after copyrighted music, now the underground and indie scenes.