What’s that noise? Sounds like Facebook is coming for YouTube

Making videos on Facebook just got easier – and more high tech – with the latest on-platform innovation, Sound Collection.

A library of thousands of sound effects, Sound Collection aims to “spice up” users’ videos with high-quality audio tracks and sound effects from all over the world.

Owned by Facebook, the sounds are free and cleared to use on any videos you make and share on both The ‘Book and The ‘Gram.

“Discover a mix of songs, vocals, noises, and instrumental tracks spanning genres like hip hop, pop, jazz, country, and more — and new tracks and effects will be added soon,” the Sound Collection explainer says.

“With the collection, we’re also launching easy-to-use discovery tools so that you can learn about different artists, follow the ones you like, and browse sounds by genre, mood, length and vocals to find tracks you like for your videos.”

Tech commentators have been quick to point out this has been a long time coming – both for creation and copyright purposes.

“Facebook has introduced a new feature to let you make your videos even more exciting and immersive,” writes tech2 news.

“Instead of just using the ambient audio or no audio at all with your video, you will now get the option to add sound as well as free music to your videos.

“This is an additional step in the direction of making the Facebook platform more appealing to the video creators.”

TechCrunch says if FB teams up with some big record labels, videos will stop being taken down for breaching copyright, and the number of watches could increase hugely.

“Hopefully Facebook is serious about investing in Sound Collection so you don’t have to turn to third-party editing apps or get slapped for copyright infringement,” the article summises.

Other commentators point out the video sharing is only for FB and IG, asking the question, “Is Zuckerberg coming for YouTube?”

One Mashable journo, wrote: “These updates are part of a much larger effort to lure YouTube personalities and other young video creators to its platform.

“Facebook has been trying to build its own community of online video stars since it launched its Live streaming service in 2015. Earlier this year, Facebook launched Watch, a new hub for original video in its app.”

She says mutually beneficial reasons of advertising revenue opportunities from pinching YouTube’s 2 billion users are behind the move, and that Facebook needed to step up its offerings to compete here.

“For most users, browsing Facebook’s apps with sound on hasn’t been typical behavior. Media companies and individuals creators frequently made videos with text on the screen so that users can have their sound off.

“But as Facebook pushes for more video, it’s been trying to make those videos more high-end like shows on Netflix and television. It’s what advertisers like to call ‘sight, sound, and motion’ that can make the content more appealing and therefore more valuable. And that makes creators happy.”

Earlier this year, our own research into Facebook revealed videos continue to be a key way to get those sought after engagement rates soaring.

So any tool to make that easier, must be a bonus, right?
Yes. And no.

Sure, Sound Collection means there will be more high quality content will be out there – but it also means brands will need to be even more strategic and invest in even more quality to stand out.

This social media stuff just keeps getting more complex…