When the COVID-19 pandemic put live events on an indefinite hiatus, the music industry was forced to rapidly adapt. For most artists, this meant transitioning to live-streamed events, using social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
The “Virtual” Montauk Music Festival took place in July on Facebook.
The Montauk Music Festival jumped in and presented a 4-week concert series to keep our music vibe of the last ten years alive. Every Tuesday in July we produced a two-hour show of original music performed by the original artists. There were direct links to the artists’ accounts for tips, as well as a link for the Lighthouse to help get donations for the ongoing, much-needed renovation. We also felt it would be a good learning experience to get prepared with the new ‘normal’ for our future music events.
We received amazing videos from artists from all over the world. We assembled the first week’s virtual concert with some performances of local bands from the Lighthouse [recorded without an audience] and music videos supplied by the out of town bands. Before the end of the first 2-hour, Facebook muted the sound with no warning saying that the music was copyrighted. Music was copyrighted by the artists. However, it had been sent to us for the virtual concert with a signed release! We called, emailed, and filled out forms to let Facebook know we had permission and release forms from the authors of the music videos to be used for this concert. We had no response from Facebook, but was told we should expect the same from YouTube & Instagram. The sad part was that the bands spent lots of money to film and have their music edited and mixed, to share with audiences who may inturn support them by buying it. As a result, we had to have the bands re-rerecord their originals so they could share their music with you through the MMF Virtual Festival. We did have a successful music event reaching over 20,000 viewers and raised money for the Lighthouse from our sponsors. Thank you, Musicians and Sponsors!!! It looks like in the future, we may not even be able to do this.
Presently, Facebook in a newly announced set of rules—set to take effect on October 1—announced that musicians will not be allowed to “use videos on our Products to create a music listening experience.”
As for the reasoning behind the new rule, Facebook—who also owns Instagram—stated that they want their technology to be used to connect family and friends to one another, not to connect musicians to their fans. The tech company threatens video removal and possible account deletion as a penalty for failure to comply.
Facebook’s official statement in regards to music events is below:
“You may not use videos on our Products to create a music listening experience. We want you to be able to enjoy videos posted by family and friends. However, if you use videos on our Products to create a music listening experience for yourself or for others, your videos will be blocked and your page, profile, or group may be deleted. This includes Live.”
