Facebook To Allow Entertainers To Receive Compensation For Livestreams + Instagram Updates

blogged by @_cierra.jones

Nothing in this world is free,  including watching your favorite entertainer perform virtually. As of Friday (April 24), Facebook plans to allow users the option of charging viewers for their live streams. This provides entertainers the opportunity to capitalize on their events, amid canceled in-person concerts due to the coronavirus.

According to the statement made by Facebook: “To support creators and small businesses, we plan to add the ability for Pages to charge for access to events with Live videos on Facebook – anything from online performances to classes to professional conferences. To help you raise money for causes, you can now add the donate button to live videos wherever nonprofit fundraisers are available. “

For viewers interested in supporting their favorite entertainer, Facebook will add more pages and countries as part of the expansion of Stars: a feature that allows you to legalize your stream. Once a viewer purchases a Star, they will be able to send it to the entertainer during their live stream. By doing so, creators will earn 1 cent for every Star.

Along with new Facebook updates comes a pair for Instagram as well, which is owned by FB. Once updates are implemented, Instagram users will be able to watch and comment on IG Lives from their desktop. Also, once a user goes live on IG, they will immediately have the option to archive their clips to IGTV for more than the current 24-hour period.

Facebook as not yet released an official date for when these updates will occur, but one can expect it to be sooner rather than later.