[John Graham]

The major streamers and stores (Spotify, Apple Music / iTunes, YouTube, Deezer, Amazon, etc.) seem to be OK with music (including cover songs) containing Toontrack EZDrummer royalty free content. However, the social media providers like Meta (Facebook / Instagram) and TikTok apparently are too restrictive to allow it. Just yesterday, I got a distribution withhold from automated claiming for a cover song on the Meta / TikTok social media platforms. Everything in the song was original recordings made by me or musicians I hired, except for the drum track which contained EZDrummer production loops. This year (2025) Meta’s policies have tightened up, and you can read about them at these links:

https://protunesone.com/blog/meta-copyright-rules-2025-how-to-legally-use-music-on-facebook-instagram/

https://audiodrome.net/for-creators/facebook-music-copyright-rules/

Of course these platforms are pushing their own products, but it doesn’t change the fact the production loops integrated in our songs are now triggering restrictions. “A royalty free license only works if it explicitly names Facebook and Instagram as covered platforms. Many older or generic licenses stop at “online video” and won’t protect against claims inside Meta’s specific monetization system.”

IMO, what we need is for Toontrack to negotiate the use of their products directly with Meta and TikTok and then give us the steps to follow to prevent these withholds. Failing that, independent producers like myself will no longer be able to use Toontrack products in our songs, since such a large proportion of streams comes from social media. Perhaps Toontrack has already broken the code on this problem – if so, I’d love to see it because the distributors appear to be unaware at this point.

• This post was modified 1 week ago by John Graham.

[John Graham]

I have EZD2 and SD2 and love them both. The main feature I’d like to see in any future releases is the ability to resize (expand) the Drum tab view. My aging eyes just aren’t as sharp as they used to be, and after hours of building and editing tracks, it’s tough to see the tiny writing…

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