Facebook Adds Licenses For 31M Tracks, 290K Rightholders
Facebook has taken another major step forward in its push to legally licence and compensate the creators of music used on its platforms, announcing a deal with ICE, the European licensing group and database for 31 million works from PRS in the UK, STIM in Sweden, GEMA in Germany and others.
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Facebook has signed with ICE Services to provide music licensing and royalty collection for 31 million works and 290,000 artists and publishers that it represents, when their music is used on Facebook, Instagram, Oculus and Messenger.
Unlike its other recent licensing deals, Facebook's WhatsApp is not included because “We understand that WhatsApp is currently used as a pure communication tool akin to private email / messaging,” a spokesperson for ICE told TechCrunch. “This will be kept under review.”
ICE is calling it the first multi-territorial license Facebook has signed covering 160 territories.
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