Facebook now has music licensing deals with all three major labels

Facebook now has all the major music labels behind its recent initiative to use licensed music in videos posted by users on Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and Oculus. Warner Music Group today announced that it reached a deal with Facebook to add its artists to the mix, joining Universal Music Group and Sony / ATV Music Publishing. As with those earlier agreements, Warner’s stable of musicians and songwriters will earn royalties from fan-created videos featuring their work.

The obvious benefit for Facebook / Instagram users is that their videos won’t automatically get pulled down over copyright violations if they include portions of licensed tunes. That, in turn, might make people more likely to actually create and share things on Facebook — something the company really wants to see more of.

With the major labels all accounted for, Facebook still has to work out a deal with Merlin to get more indie artists on board, but the company has made a lot of headway in just a few months. You can bet that YouTube has certainly noticed.