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Gizmodo reported earlier this morning that Facebook has effectively banned application developers from asking users to incentivize user to offer incentives in exchange for a "like." While this specifically relates to program developers, we are curious what the repercussions of this new stance will be on the music industry, and if this also means that "like to download" will become a thing of the past. Zuckerberg & Co. released a statement saying:
"You must not incentivize people to use social plugins or to like a Page. This includes offering rewards, or gating apps or app content based on whether or not a person has liked a Page. It remains acceptable to incentivize people to login to your app, checkin at a place or enter a promotion on your app's Page. To ensure quality connections and help businesses reach the people who matter to them, we want people to like Pages because they want to connect and hear from the business, not because of artificial incentives. We believe this update will benefit people and advertisers alike."
Gizmodo goes on to say "we certainly think it'll benefit people," but we're curious if and how this will affect independent artists. Artists are often booked and measured by promoters according to their reach on Facebook as some sort of measure of success, and we've seen countless artists complaining that they are now forced to pay for sponsored posts in order to land in user news feeds.
We are also curious how this will sway software development and organic growth for new apps. Artists, labels, and blogs are having an incredibly tough time competing with conglomerates that have budgets for sponsored posts, and we wonder if pages that have found humongous fan bases following old policies will have an insurmountable leg up on upstarts that are following new policies.
The question that remains is whether or not these rules and regulations will reach outside of app development, and if these new regulations will have an affect on the music industry. We have a feeler out to Facebook to get some clarity, but in the meantime, feel free to take a peek at the new list of application policies. They can be found here, and are pretty crazy. Some excerpts:
- We may share your contact info with people who want to contact you.
- We may use your name, logos, content, and information, including screenshots and video captures of your app, to demonstrate or feature your use of Facebook, worldwide and royalty-free.
- We can create apps or products that offer features and services similar to your app.
- We don’t guarantee that Platform will always be free
- Facebook and its licensors reserve all right, title and interest, including all intellectual property and other proprietary rights, in and to all SDKs (software development kits)