There were previous rumors that Facebook was looking to join in on the latest music trend and launch a music streaming service to take on Apple Music and Spotify. However, new reports suggest that the social network will not enter the music streaming bandwagon and that instead, it is looking to make a music video deal.

Facebook is reportedly holding preliminary talks with major record labels to acquire licensing rights to feature music videos on its News Feed.

According to sources who spoke to The New York Times, the social networking company reportedly wants to feature music videos in the coming months with plans to monitor their performance until the end of the year. The deal would make sense since four billion videos are streamed per day on Facebook, thanks to its video autoplay feature.

The move could mean serious competition with video content website YouTube, most known for its music videos. Since Facebook has 1.4 billion users worldwide, having the videos on its site could have an impact on the amount of YouTube views its music videos receive. It would mean that Facebook could keep its users on the site instead of them leaving to view content on other sites such as Google-owned YouTube.

The labels would allegedly select the music videos that would be featured on Facebook's News Feed, with the company sharing advertising revenue it receives on the content. This could possibly sweeten any deal for record labels, especially since YouTube royalty rates are low. Record labels are known to frown upon making music available for free — something YouTube and music streaming services do — since it hurts the pockets in terms of sales.

The company is allegedly just in the early stage of talks with record labels, but this is not the first time it has tried to expand its video-related content. Facebook has urged publishers like CNN, Buzzfeed and ESPN to publish original videos to the News Feed, allowing them to post them on YouTube and Vimeo, which then gets linked back to Facebook.

Facebook declined to comment on its music video plans but did confirm that it has no plans to go into music streaming.

Via: The New York Times

Photo: Andrew Feinberg | Flickr