Facebook Expands Lip-Syncing and Music-Sharing Features, Will Let Users Add Songs to Profiles
By Todd Spangler
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Facebook is turning up the volume on its push into music. The company is broadly launching a way to add songs to News Feed posts and Stories, expanding the rollout of its lip-syncing feature, and will soon let users add songs to their profiles.
To date, Facebook has inked licensing deals for songs with Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Merlin, Kobalt, Global Music Rights and several European performing rights organizations.
Starting Wednesday (Oct. 24), Facebook is expanding the ability to use songs in Facebook Stories or News Feed posts. To add a song to photos and videos, users can tap on the sticker icon in the camera view and select the “music” sticker. After selecting a song, a sticker is added with the artist and song name to the post.
At launch, several million songs will be available for users of Facebook’s iOS and Android apps to include in their posts. The features will initially be available in the U.S., Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Meanwhile, Facebook launched Lip Sync Live in June in limited markets, letting users broadcast a live video while singing along to a track. It has now rolled out Lip Sync Live to all profiles in many countries, and it has opened up the feature to more artists and creators by expanding to Facebook Pages.
Using Lip Sync Live, boy band Why Don’t We on Tuesday shared a performance of “8 Letters,” from their debut album of the same name, and English singer Jess Glynne used it to share a video of her lip-syncing her new single, “Thursday. ”
Based on user feedback, Facebook also is starting to add lyrics to Lip Sync Live. Initially, lyrics are available for songs including Dua Lipa’s “New Rules,” Khalid’s “Better” and “Girls Like You” by Maroon 5.
And Facebook will soon be launching the ability to add songs to a new music section on users’ profile (pictured, top), which also will let you pin a song to the top of your profile.
Songs added to profiles “will visually showcase the artist and track you choose,” according to Facebook. When someone plays a song on your profile, they’ll hear a portion of the song and see an accompanying video featuring photos of the artists and album art. They can then choose to add the song to their own profile or visit the artist’s Facebook Page.
Facebook’s music efforts are led by Tamara Hrivnak, head of music business development and partnerships (who is a former WMG and Google exec), and Fred Beteille, head of product, music and rights (also formerly with Google/YouTube).
