Facebook has been undoubtedly one of the music industry's biggest missed opportunity for monetization in recent years. With billions of users consuming millions of hours of video on Facebook and Instagram, which embodies sound recordings and compositions, the thought of Facebook rolling out monetization to independent songwriters and publishers makes us giddy!
Well, we are happy to report that that day has finally arrived!
Facebook has engaged HFA's Rumblefish services to offer to publishers the opportunity to enter into a direct license agreement with Facebook for Facebook, Instagram and Oculus. This opportunity is available to all publishers (including self-published DIY musicians who deliver title registrations to HFA via their TuneRegistry account).
The deal covers the reproduction of compositions in uploaded videos, stories and live videos across Facebook, Instagram and Oculus.
All you must do is opt-in to the deal (if you wish) and deliver your composition data to HFA (which can be done quickly via your TuneRegistry account). The deadline to opt-in to Facebook's direct license agreement is on or before March 12, 2018.
HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:
1. Login to your HFA Online Account (if you do not have one, you can request on here). Note: DIY self-published songwriters can and should create an HFA Online Account, not only for Facebook publishing royalties, but also for Spotify, Apple, Napster f/k/a Rhapsody, The Orchard, 7Digital, and more.
2. Carefully review the summary materials and license agreement. To view the Facebook agreement and to opt-in to the direct license agreement, you will need to access the Agreement Portal here.
3. Accepting the offer will result in a direct license between your company and Facebook. You do not need to be affiliated with HFA to participate; however, you will need an HFA Online Account. If you have questions regarding this opportunity, please email clientservices@harryfox.com and include the publishing company name.
4. Login and add your songs to your TuneRegistry Catalog. (If you do not have a TuneRegistry, create one here.)
5. Make sure that you add your HFA publisher number to the publisher Contact record inside your TuneRegistry account. (Note: DIY self-published songwriters must create a company contact record on the Contact module for your own publishing entity (even if it is named after you).
6. Once your songs have been added with all co-writers and publishers and splits, navigate to the Registrations module and start a U.S. Song Registrations to register your songs with Harry Fox Agency for all licenses to which you have opted in. (Note: The registration also goes to ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, Music Reports Inc. (for Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeart Media, etc.), and Crunch Digital to ensure that all US performing rights organizations and rights administrators will receive your song for other licensing and royalty obligations. If it has not been registered with ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC and you are a member of one of these PROs, then we will update your song record with the ISWC provided to us by the PRO once they've registered it. We then remit the ISWC to HFA and Music Reports Inc. on your behalf. It is all streamlined with TuneRegistry!)
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7. Confirm and submit your registration. The registration will show up in your Registrations tracking window.
We are very happy to see Facebook take the steps in the right direction to enable independent rights-holders and DIY musicians to monetize on its platforms. TuneRegistry stands with thousands of DIY creators to empower them with the tools to streamline their music administration.
If you do not have a TuneRegistry account, sign-up today here.
Have questions? Click on the blue icon in the bottom right corner to chat with us.
TuneRegistry is a publishing administration platform that streamlines Independent Artists, Songwriters and Producers to self administer their publishing & Sound Recording rights.
