June 26, 2019

People want to share their favourite songs online – and Social Media is listening. Following the recent launch Instagram are improving the value for their customers, we review the latest features allowing people  to create content with popular music, how social media companies  are creating online music libraries, these new revenue opportunities  for artists and the increase in music data.

People associate songs with their memories, life events and emotions. We are  sharing more content online than ever. Whether it be winning the football  championship, getting engaged or something as simple as a dog rolling over,  people want to share content with the music that is meaningful to them. In recent  years, social media companies are recognising their users’ desire to include their  favourite songs in the online content they create and post. In contrast to blocking  copyrighted music through content ID systems, now social media platforms are  creating new ways to integrate music into its products.

In June 2019 Instagram further expanded its music offering to include on-screen  lyrics. Now when users add a song to their video or image to their story, they can  add the audio as before but now also the lyrics in an overlay. The feature allows users to choose the exact lyrics they associate with their memory or content,  creating an even deeper experience.

Continuing Facebook and Instagram’s close partnership with the music industry the  lyrics feature was launched by one of the most streamed artists of the year – Billie Eilish who is represented by Interscope, part of the Universal Music Group. This new feature is capturing users’ imaginations and surely will drive engagement with their  music features, and so create more streams for artists.

Global music rights revenue is increasing globally, with IEPI reporting 9.7% growth in  2018. Social media is a contributor to this growth with new digital revenue streams  for music artists. It is creating more opportunities for songs to be played online  through low-level user-generated content, accessible by normal users.

Similarly to the rise of music streaming platforms, the increasing volume of music  rights data generated from social media posts must be considered and managed by  music rights organisations. As social media companies continue to develop new  music features for their applications the scale of music data will only increase. To  understand the possible scale of data, Instagram now has 1 billion monthly users. As  a result, there is the possibility for massive amounts of music data to be created.

As social media increases the number of plays, it also increases the potential music  royalties value gap for artists. Spanish Point Technologies supports global music  rights organisations through their robust and secure music matching systems. Our customers not only have the ability to manage the increased scale of data but also  close the value gap for their members.

To discuss how your organisation can support this increased flow of music data for your members contact info@spanishpoint.ie or check out our Matching Engine page for more info.