Why Use Royalty-Free Music In Sponsored Content
Disclaimer: This is not intended to be legal advice. This is to serve as a guide to find important information. Please do your research as well. This is current information as of October 25, 2021.
People often ask why do I have to use royalty-free music in sponsored content? There are many reasons and to help with your research we have some sources and tips to help you.
Facebook Guidelines, which include Facebook Owned Properties such as Instagram, have strict rules regarding copyright and what is or is not allowed for business purposes. This includes creators, business owners, and paid promotions. For this reason, Social Fabric requires that any paid content have both the paid partnership label and use only royalty-free music. This protects you and your content from getting flagged or worse.
What exactly does Facebook Say?
Some of the products we offer are also governed by supplemental terms. If you use any of those Products, supplemental terms will be made available and will become part of our agreement with you. For instance, if you access or use our Products for commercial or business purposes, such as buying ads, selling products, developing apps, managing a group or Page for your business, or using our measurement services, you must agree to our Commercial Terms. If you post or share content containing music, you must comply with our Music Guidelines. To the extent any supplemental terms conflict with these Terms, the supplemental terms shall govern to the extent of the conflict.
Per Facebook Terms
You are responsible for the content you post. People use our Products to share content with their family and friends. Keep in mind you remain solely responsible for the content that you post, including any music that features in that content. Nothing in these terms constitutes any authorization by us with respect to any use of music on any of our Products.
Use of music for commercial or non-personal purposes, in particular, is prohibited unless you have obtained appropriate licenses.
Per Updates and Guidelines for Including Music in Video
Instagram works to protect the rights of its partners. For this reason, it is recommended to only use music that requires no attribution. This is why you should choose royalty-free music.
How do I know if I can use a specific song or sound?
Use of music for commercial or non-personal purposes, in particular, is prohibited unless you have obtained appropriate licenses.
Under Facebook’s Terms of Service and Community Standards, you can only post content to Facebook that doesn’t violate someone else’s intellectual property rights. The best way to help make sure that what you post to Facebook doesn’t violate copyright law is to only post content that you’ve created yourself. It’s possible to infringe someone else’s copyright when you post their content on Facebook, even if you:
- Bought or downloaded the content (ex: a song from iTunes)
- Recorded the content onto your own recording device (ex: a song playing in the background during a party, concert, sporting event, wedding, etc.)
- Gave credit to the copyright owner
- Included a disclaimer that you didn’t intend to infringe copyright
- Didn’t intend to profit from it
- Modified the work or added your own original material to it
- Found the content available on the internet
- Saw that others posted the same content as well
- Think the use is a fair use
Check out these resources
Where to find Royalty-Free Music
- October Content Calendar - September 21, 2022
- Music Requirements For Sponsored Instagram Content - September 12, 2022
- September Monthly Content Calendar - August 25, 2022
