Facebook today announced it was offering a selection of free music and sound effects to content creators. If you want to use music in a Facebook or Instagram video, the Sound Collection gives you options that won’t get you dinged for copyright infringement.
Facebook removes any video uploaded that contains copyrighted music — similarly to how YouTube works. So instead of adding an Ariana Grande song to that highlight reel of vacation photos and potentially getting a black mark for it, the company is giving you a selection of music it owns to use instead. Note that these will only be free and clear to use in Facebook and Instagram videos.
The sound collection contains a number of tracks, sorted by genre. A lot of it feels more kind of generic, like elevator music, but some of it is actually not that bad. With 1,000 tracks and 1,500 sound effects, it’s by no means an extensive list — I’m not going to get to score my winter staycation with “Stairway to Heaven,” sadly — but it’s still good to have options.
YouTube also offers a collection of royalty-free songs and sound effects, so it’s obvious who Facebook is taking notes from. This might be part of Facebook’s effort to draw in new creators, away from the more well-established video site. Since the launch of its Watch app earlier this year, Facebook needs new voices and faces if it wants the kind of diverse content with which it can compete with the likes of YouTube.
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While a free music library might not be the biggest step towards courting the YouTube audience, it is the kind of tool Facebook has long needed if it doesn’t want content creators to feel hamstrung as soon as they boot up the site.
Facebook’s Sound Collection is rolling out to everyone over the next few days. You can find the library here.
h/t TechCrunch
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