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Facebook reportedly in talks to put music videos in your News Feed

Facebook reportedly in talks to put music videos in your News Feed

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Facebook is trying to set up deals with major record companies to put music videos in your News Feed, both Billboard and The New York Times report, as part of an attempt to capture a share of the market currently dominated by YouTube. According to the publications, the social network has held preliminary discussions with multiple labels over the past few weeks, and is looking to start inserting videos selected by record companies in the coming months.

The social network reportedly plans to share ad revenue with labels, but terms of the deal have not yet been finalized. Billboard reports Facebook is offering the same split in ad revenue that YouTube currently does — with 45 percent going to the social network, and 55 percent to rights holders — but The New York Times says Facebook has offered better deals than YouTube. In addition, the social network has reportedly offered to clamp down more quickly on unauthorized content than YouTube currently does, conceivably making Facebook a more attractive place to debut new videos.

Facebook has reportedly offered to clamp down on unauthorized videos faster than YouTube

The Verge first reported that Facebook was talking to record companies earlier this month, with the aim of the social network "getting into music," but it wasn't immediately apparent what the social network had planned. Yesterday Music Ally reported that Facebook was planning to launch its own streaming music service, to rival Spotify, Rdio, and the recently launched Apple Music, but the company quickly shot down the rumors, saying it had "no plans" to create such a service.

A shift into music videos would make more sense for Zuckerberg's company. Facebook has already experimented with the medium, having provided the platform for Jay Z to premiere the video for his song "Holy Grail" in 2013, and it has made heavy use of short clips in its new instant articles. The music video sector is huge, too, making up by far YouTube's most popular content — of the site's top 30 most-viewed clips, all but three are official music videos — and Facebook is one of the few internet entities to have a user base big enough to challenge YouTube's position. For now though, the social network has yet to comment whether it is indeed planning to pepper your News Feed with pop hits.