Facebook strikes global licensing deal with Indian music label Saregama

Facebook said on Wednesday it has entered into a global deal with Saregama, one of India’s oldest music labels, to license its music for video and other social experiences across its marquee and Instagram services.

This partnership, which comes weeks after Swedish music giant Spotify also signed a deal with Saregama, will allow users to choose from a wide variety of music to add to their social experiences such as videos, stories via music stickers and other creative content, Facebook said. Users will also be able to add songs to their Facebook profile.

Saregama, one of the oldest music labels in the world, is the best place to find tracks from several India music legends including Lata Mangeshkar, R.D. Burman, Mohammed Rafi, Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Kalyanji-Anandji, and Hemant Kumar. The giant says its library contains over 100,000 songs, ghazals, and more in over 25 languages.

A person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that Facebook is in talks with several more music labels in India and other markets. Bloomberg first reported about Facebook’s talks with international music labels late last year.

More to follow…