In times when living in distance is the new normal, we turn to livestreaming in a bid to narrow the physical gap between us and our friends. For content creators, musicians, and performance artists alike, Instagram Live has risen to the occasion, providing a simple interactive platform for creators to interact with a virtual audience. Some creators spend days preparing till the moment they press the play button, only to be cut off 90 seconds into the song, to be met with a red-colorued pop-up box.

It's frustrating when that happens, but copyright still remains the rule of thumb in any creative industry. The little red box appears to protect the rights of those who own the music tracks, hence halting you before you can 'steal' their original work. Well, as much as it's a bummer not to be able to include your favourite song into your vacation vlog on your IGTV, but here's Instagram's newly revamped music copyright guidelines you need to know, from Instagram:

• For Instagram stories, the use of music is unrestricted. It's okay to add any music track to your video or traditional musical performances (e.g. filming a live artist or band performing).

• For a posted Instagram video, the greater the number of full-length recorded tracks in a video, the more likely it may be removed by Instagram or not being able to be published altogether. Hence, shorter clips of music are recommended.

• Visuals are the key for Instagram, solely recorded audio tracks is discouraged by the social media platform. 

• Recorded music that is not yet available in certain countries may not be available for use in those locations.

• If your video contains audio that does not comply with Instagram's licensing agreements, it may be muted or blocked.

The guidelines apply to both live and recorded video for Instagram and Facebook, regardless of personal accounts, pages, verified and unverified accounts. However, Instagram encourages users to utilise royalty-free tracks from Facebook's Sound Collection, which boasts over 7,000 tracks from a myriad of genres including hip-hop, pop, jazz, rock, and more.

Instagram will also be updating their In-Product Video Notifications to make them simpler and surface any problems regarding their livestream audio as promptly as they can. If Instagram's systems detect a breach in licensing agreements, the platform will actively provide instructions to users on the next steps to take.

Follow the above guidelines and we bet the next time you're on Instagram, that nasty little red box won't get you anymore.

Image Credit: Instagram