Ed Sheeran cover songs on Facebook are a no- no

LOS ANGELES As any music fan knows, “cover” videos are huge on YouTube and Facebook. But as one singer found out, covering an Ed Sheeran song could trigger Facebook to suspend your account.

Just ask London busker Charlotte Campbell.

She posted a video on YouTube about how Facebook suspended her for three days after posting a snippet of a Sheeran cover song. That got the attention of Sheeran, who apologized.

Covers are huge on YouTube. Former Nickelodeon performer Ariana Grande got her music career started performing covers there. But on Facebook, posting covers isn’t as easy. Because the social network doesn’t have licenses with music companies, it has been taking down members’ videos, or worse, suspending their accounts.

Digital Music News described the situation in which Sheeran fans find they’re in hot water with Facebook and blame not the social network, but the artist. In her video, Campbell described the pain of going without her account and notes Facebook told her that if she posted another cover video, “they will delete my account.”

Sheeran wrote her on Facebook to apologize and urge her to keep it up.

The ban “definitely has nothing to do with me,” says Sheeran, who got his start posting songs on MySpace and currently has the No. 1 album on Billboard, his latest, Divide. Sheeran blamed his record label, Warner Music. “I bloody love seeing people cover my songs.”

Facebook says it’s in talks with the music industry to resolve these types of situations.

For those of you who might be more faithful to the original, there aren’t a lot of great solutions for you if you’re deadset on posting to Facebook. Posting videos directly to Facebook will get you more traffic than putting a YouTube video on your page, because Facebook rewards direct uploads with more eyeballs. But the embed will get your video to your followers, and YouTube will handle the copyright issues.

ANTONIO CALANNI, AP Ed Sheeran blames his record label.