Facebook Updates and Guidelines for Including Music in Video

Facebook has updated and clarified their rules for including music in videos. In short:

As part of our licensing agreements, there are limitations around the amount of recorded music that can be included in Live broadcasts or videos. While the specifics of our licensing agreements are confidential, today we’re sharing some general guidelines to help you plan your videos better:

• Music in stories and traditional live music performances (e.g., filming an artist or band performing live) are permitted.

• The greater the number of full-length recorded tracks in a video, the more likely it may be limited (more below on what we mean by “limited”).

• Shorter clips of music are recommended.

• There should always be a visual component to your video; recorded audio should not be the primary purpose of the video.

These guidelines are consistent across live and recorded video on both Facebook and Instagram, and for all types of accounts — i.e. pages, profiles, verified and unverified accounts. And although music is launched on our platforms in more than 90 countries, there are places where it is not yet available. So if your video includes recorded music, it may not be available for use in those locations.