Reportedly Meta e SIAE they would have announced a new agreement, still temporary, which will guarantee the presence of Italian music on Facebook and Instagram, at least until January 2024.
The tug of war between Italian Society of Authors and Publishers and Mark Zuckerberg’s colossus began in March 2023, when Meta removed all the songs from the SIAE catalog (which includes a large portion of Italian music) from its social media library. After about a month and a half of musicless stories and exhausting negotiations, the two sides had reached a tentative agreement in May. The summer was saved, with the shout of Festivalbar with the cash straight in the Instagram Stories.
Now, however, the May agreement is about to run out, given that the deadline is set for October 6th: the day after tomorrow! But don’t worry, according to some rumors the two parties would have reached a new provisional agreement, which will extend the previous one until January 2024.
Why do Meta and SIAE continue to stipulate provisional agreements?
At the basis of the dispute between the two parties there is obviously the distribution of royalties for copyright (and not only). On one side Meta is called paying SIAE for the use of copyrighted musictherefore having to find a fair economic agreement on the figure. On the other hand, SIAE, as per European regulations, requires access to insights data from the social networks Facebook and Instagramto be able to formulate an economic proposal proportional to the use of one’s music on the platforms.
A definitive and long-term agreement seems like pure utopia at the moment, which is why the two parties are only stipulating temporary agreements while waiting for a negotiating table that satisfies both SIAE and Meta. At the moment, in fact, eliminating music from social media would be detrimental to both.
On the one hand, Meta would find itself at a disadvantage compared to TikTok, with users and creators not having the possibility of creating content with music. SIAE, on the other hand, would not protect the interests of its members, given that most artists use social media to promote their works.