It’s no secret that Facebook has been pushing for more video content on the platform for the past few years. Their latest move is to add licensed and official music videos to the Watch section and your news feed. The goal is to let users discover and share their musical discoveries across various genres and obviously to also go up against YouTube in terms of video viewing and sharing. They’re rolling it out to U.S. users initially but no news yet if it’s going to be something global.
At launch, Facebook is bringing exclusive music video content from artists like J. Balvin, Karol G, Sebastian Yatra, Alejandro Fernandez and Calibre 50. YouTube star and singer Lele Pons will also be launching a music video for a new track not on YouTube but on the social media giant’s new content section. While these names may not be as big as Beyonce or Bruno Mars, it looks like they’re focusing more on rising and global artists for their initial rollout.
They’ve actually been testing this feature in India and Thailand although they just mentioned that it is for the “foundation” of a music video experience. They have signed partnerships with Sony Music Group, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Merlin, BMG, Kobalt, and other independent music publishers. The difference with the music videos on the platform is that you have a whole social experience to complement it since of course, it’s on Facebook.
You’ll see a special section on Facebook Watch called Music and you can explore videos by genre, artist, mood, and themed playlists. You can react to, comment on, and share music videos in your feed, groups, pages, messenger, etc. You can connect with other fans of the artist, react to the video in real time as it premieres, discover new artists your friends share it on their feeds, and other Facebook things that you usually do.
Music videos on Facebook is rolling out for U.S users already and more videos will be launched in the coming weeks. As for when other territories will get it, their official announcement didn’t say.
