What you need to know
- Facebook Gaming has extended its background music support to all partners and members of its Level Up program.
- This means streamers can listen to music on their streams and VODs without fear.
- This is a hot topic as Twitch streamers have been hit with DMCA takedowns in recent times.
Facebook Gaming just gave its existing users, and potential new ones, one big reason to stream there over Twitch or YouTube. While the latter two are doing, well, not much, with regards background music on streams, Facebook has been working with the music industry to allow it safely and now the feature is rolling out to a huge number of streamers on the platform.
"Today, we're expanding access to music on Facebook Gaming. Now, all Partner and Level Up Creators can play background music during their livestreams on Facebook Gaming — including clips made from a livestream and the video on demand (VOD) versions of livestreams. And to celebrate, we're kicking off #PlayLoud, a series of live events that pair renowned DJs with Facebook Gaming Creators."
The Level Up program is akin to being a Twitch Affiliate, and while it has some requirements you need to meet in order to take part, they're not too hard to achieve. Once in, you'll be able to safely enjoy music on your stream with your community. VOD support especially is a big deal, since a lot of Twitch streamers are either deleting theirs or having to work magic in their streaming software to ensure music doesn't appear on them.
The magnitude of this shouldn't be underestimated. Background music has been a part of streams for a long time now, but the music industry (which, let's face it, is a dinosaur) has finally caught up and started hitting the platforms because they can. I remember once doing a stream on Facebook Gaming and the audio being muted in the VOD because the music in Forza Motorsport 7 was flagging a copyright issue.
Facebook Gaming has been making some serious quality of life improvements in the platform, even before Mixer vanished and it became the 'recommended' home for the platform's streamers. Make no mistake, Facebook Gaming is a really good place to watch and stream gaming content. The trouble it continues to face is the optics of the parent company.
But, while music on Twitch continues to be an issue unless everyone is paying for Amazon Music, and the less said about music on YouTube the better, Facebook has identified an important issue and done something about it. And for that, the platform deserves immense credit. We're left with three major players in the streaming market right now that dominate, and all are backed by some of the biggest tech companies in the world. There's no longer an excuse for Twitch and YouTube to ignore this.
