Almost 2 years ago, Instagram announced the integration of music in Instagram stories. Over the years this has grown to become one of the most used features in Instagram stories. Try to think about the last time you viewed a few stories and didn’t come across a story featuring music!
Recently, the Instagram newsroom released an update on the guidelines for using music on the Instagram platform. Although the company is happy for users to express their creative side, music right holders, artists, songwriters and partners need to be respected and taken care of.
According to Instagram, the basic guidelines are:
- “There are no limits on things like music in Stories, or traditional musical performances (e.g. filming a live artist or band performing).
- The greater the number of full-length recorded tracks in a video, the more likely it may be limited (more below on what we mean by “limited”).
- For that reason, shorter clips of music are recommended.
- There should always be a visual component to your video; recorded audio should not be the primary purpose of the video.”
Instagram also notes that these guidelines apply across both Instagram and Facebook, and are the same for all forms of accounts including pages, groups, individual users and unverified accounts.
Instagram Live Update
Have you ever had an Instagram live video interrupted or removed abruptly? This may have been due to music rights issues in your live stream. Previously, if you were streaming an Instagram live video with potential music rights issues your video would be interrupted or removed from the platform. Instagram has now revamped this with a notification system. This means instead of your video being removed automatically, you will receive a notification as soon as an issue is detected, informing you that your video will be removed unless you fix what is wrong. If you fix this issue your stream will continue along with no interruptions. If the issue is not fixed, Instagram will then block, mute or remove the video and inform you of what you need to do to get live again.
This is an excellent update from Instagram. Often users could be out in public using Instagram live without knowing background music playing that doesn’t fit Instagram’s license agreements. This new feature will provide users the notice they need that something in their video isn’t clearing these agreement, allowing users to fix what they need before their video is removed.
For an example of what this type of notification will look like see the image below:
What Are Your Thoughts?
What do you think about these guideline updates from Instagram? Do you think this makes it more simple to understand what type of music Instagrammers can use in stories? We think having simple guidelines that apply across both Facebook and Instagram for all account types is a great update from the company and will simplify rights issues in the future. Also, having notifications instead of interruptions on Instagram live for potential music rights infringements is much better!
If you have any questions about these new guidelines you can get in contact with our team by clicking here, or reach us on our Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn pages. We are always more than happy to answer any questions you may have.
To see the full press release from the Instagram Newsroom click here.
