Instagram has posted its guidelines for using copyrighted music during live videos, Stories, and other posts on the platform, and part of the announcement includes a new update to the notification that pops up to tell users they’re using unlicensed art in ways that violate its rules. The changes to the pop-up notification are designed around helping users avoid Instagram’s automated interruptions — like muting or outright blocking — that occurs if a piece of licensed music plays for too long over or in the background of a live video.
Now, the notification pops up earlier in live broadcasts to give users more time to remove the audio so they can avoid having the stream disrupted or taken down. Instagram will also give clearer instructions to remedy the situation in the event a stream is automatically muted or blocked due to use of unlicensed music.
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“These notifications are intended to alert you when our systems detect that your broadcast or uploaded video may include music in a way that doesn’t adhere to our licensing agreements,” reads Instagram’s blog post on the changes. “Updates include making notifications clearer and surfacing notifications earlier to live broadcasters, to give people time to adjust their streams and avoid interruptions if we detect they may be approaching our limitations.”
Instagram is also reiterating that its policy around music usage includes unlimited use in Stories and when filming live music performances and posting those to the main feed. But using music in a live video or a pre-recorded video posted to the feed has limitations, and Instagram says the general rule of thumb is to use shorter clips, to try not to use numerous clips of different music throughout a video, and to avoid making the broadcasting of music the primary focus of a video by incorporating a visual component.
“These guidelines are consistent across live and recorded video on both Facebook and Instagram, and for all types of accounts — i.e. pages, profiles, verified and unverified accounts,” the blog post explains. “And although music is launched on our platforms in more than 90 countries, there are places where it is not yet available. So if your video includes recorded music, it may not be available for use in those locations.”