Report: Facebook Offering Record Labels Big Bucks

Wants Right To Stream Videos Including Music

There could be some big bucks flowing to the music biz, as BLOOMBERG reports, "FACEBOOK INC. is offering major record labels and music publishers hundreds of millions of dollars so the users of its social network can legally include songs in videos they upload, according to people familiar with the matter."

The move comes as FACEBOOK deals with a number of videos uploaded to the site that feature music to which FACEBOOK doesn’t have the rights. The report notes, "Music owners have been negotiating with FACEBOOK for months in search of a solution, and FACEBOOK has promised to build a system to identify and tag music that infringes copyrights. Yet such a setup will take as long as two years to complete, which is too long for both sides to wait, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing details that aren’t public."

It's good news for music's bottom line. "Global music sales grew 5.9% in 2016, according to THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE PHONOGRAPHIC INDUSTRY, adds BLOOMBERG. "VIVENDI SA’s UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP, owner of the world’s largest record label, reported a 15.5% increases in sales in the most recent fiscal quarter, while WARNER MUSIC GROUP, owner of the third largest label, reported a 13% increases in sales."

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