With TikTok becoming a key promotional platform for musicians, and an increasingly viable pathway to exposure for many unsigned artists, the bigger players are also keen to highlight their potential for the same, with YouTube recently noting that it paid out over $4 billion to the music industry in the last 12 months alone.
And now, Facebook’s launching a new Independent Artist Program to help unsigned musicians make their content available on Facebook and Instagram, free of charge.
As explained by Facebook:
“Undistributed artists and creators can now easily distribute their music for use on Facebook and Instagram products like Stories, Reels, and anywhere else we offer a music library. We’ve partnered with preferred third-party music distribution companies to help you get your music on Facebook and Instagram quickly, seamlessly and at no cost to you.”
Through Facebook’s partner platforms DistroKid and TuneCore, independent musicians will now be able to directly link their songs into Facebook’s creator tools, and earn money from their usage, while Facebook will also provide data insights to help them track their content performance over time.
TikTok’s looking to provide similar opportunities through its partnership with UnitedMasters, which also provides a pathway to exposure for independent musicians. The lure of Facebook’s program, however, will be far greater distribution and reach. Which, of course, is relative to usage, largely based on engagement with Instagram and Facebook Stories and Reels specifically. But it could end up being a valuable opportunity for musicians to get their tracks out there – and maybe even become a new viral trend through Facebook’s apps.
But really, at least right now, TikTok is probably a more valuable prospect in this respect. The app has huge, and growing reach among younger consumers, who are more likely to be the key target market in this respect, both in terms of music consumption and adoption of video communication options. Having Facebook as another option can only help, but there may also be some restrictions about providing your music on both platforms, based on exclusivity clauses on the different partner platforms for each app.
Still, it’s another exposure opportunity for artists to consider, and while Instagram Reels may not be seeing the same levels of usage as TikTok, Instagram Stories is now a major consideration.
Through this program, artists would be able to add their tracks to music stickers on all of Facebook’s tools, and that may prove valuable for many creators – especially those who already have a presence in its apps.
