[MUSIC 101] Monetize Your Music & Videos On Facebook & Instagram

An exciting new option for monetizing your music is through TuneCore. If you use them as your distributor, you can monetize your videos on Facebook and Instagram for free. You will continue to keep 100% of your revenue, the same way it works with songs sales. The money you make from plays will be dispersed to your TuneCore account. It is a direct and simple option if you are looking to capitalize on your Facebook videos.

Patreon is also a good way to make money off your content, despite it not being direct monetization of Facebook videos. Their whole mission is about getting creators paid for their work and talents, and they do a good job of that. Although there is not seamless integration with Facebook, sharing Patreon posts on Facebook will directly fuel conversions. The goal is directing your Facebook following to your Patreon so they can buy your music and support your craft.

Even if you’re not using Facebook directly for monetization, or if you’re one of the lucky few able to use their monetization system, your video will have to fit their community guidelines. We won’t go through all of them, but there are a few recent additions we want to touch on that make your video unfit for Facebook. Your video cannot feature:

• Tragedy and conflict
  • You may be thinking; what gives? In response to the US Presidential 2016 election, Facebook has made some drastic changes to their community guidelines. This is one of them. Even if you want to simply educate or promote a recent tragedy or even a past one, you cannot do it on Facebook and expect monetization.
• Social issues
  • Like tragedy and conflict, you may be wondering; why? This guideline may also be in response to the backlash they received after the US Presidential 2016 election. Like before, even if you want to simply raise awareness of an issue or educate people about it; you cannot upload it to Facebook for monetization.
• Excessive alcohol or drug use
  • This is really important if you the genre is known for featuring such things, like gangster rap, heavy metal and so on. You can be a rebel and upload the video anyway, but it could be taken down.
• Luring viewers to directly engage with the video
  • Specifically, you cannot ask viewers to comment, like or share a post. Essentially, no end tags. It may seem counter-intuitive, but this may also be in response to backlash during the election.

If you’re thinking, “I don’t want to monetize random videos! How do I monetize my music on Facebook?” -we have some good news for you.

As stated before, it’s best to work with partners outside of Facebook to monetize videos, rather than Facebook directly. For indie artists, the number one publisher is DistroKid. They distribute your music to platforms like Facebook, as well as Pandora, Spotify, YouTube, and others.