After Warner, Facebook signs new music licensing deals

Social media giant Facebook has signed three new music licensing agreements that will let users post songs from artists including Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty and Neil Young.

French authors’ rights society Sacem has become the latest music industry organization to signed a licensing deal with Facebook.

In addition to covering the use of Sacem repertoire for video and other social experiences, the multi-year agreement also covers works from Wixen Music Publishing and Canadian society Socan.

The social media giant is battling YouTube to attract consumers to its platform.

Earlier this month, Facebook had signed a licensing agreement with major record label Warner Music to cover the music company’s recorded music and music publishing catalogs for use in social media.

Under the agreement, users of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Oculus will be able to upload and share videos containing licensed music in the Warner Music and Warner/Chappell catalogs.

The deal paves the way for social media users to create, upload and share videos with licensed music from artists and songwriters, without their posts getting pulled down over copyright violations.

“This deal marks a new milestone in our efforts to ensure that musicians and creators are fairly remunerated for the use of their works on any digital platform,” said Sacem CEO Jean-Noël Tronc in a statement announcing the deal.

However, no financial details have been disclosed by either of the companies.

“We are extremely proud to represent Universal Music Publishing International, Wixen Music Publishing and Socan in such an important new partnership,” added Cécile Rap-Veber, Sacem’s director of licensing and international.

Facebook had 2.2 billion monthly active users and Instagram 800 million till fourth quarter of 2017.