Snapchat has inked a deal with Sony Music Entertainment to include its artists’ music in the app’s library for creators to use in their video creations. Snap now has tie-ups worth three top music labels – Sony Music, Warner Music and Universal Music.
The new deal will allow Snapchat users to unleash their creative potential through huge library of music, and also help artists to get more direct promotional benefit in the app.
“With over 200 million Snapchatters engaging with augmented reality every day, we know they love using our Lenses to express themselves. So we’re expanding the music experience on Snapchat by adding Sounds into our AR Lenses available in the Lens Carousel and experimenting with new formats,” Snap said in its announcement.
Sony Music had previously used Snap’s AR tools as part of a partnership for the launch of Kygo’s collaboration with Whitney Houston for her unreleased version of Higher Love.
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More music-related options from Snap soon
Snap is also working on two new lens products that will incorporate new music formats and tools.
“Rolling out soon, we’ll feature Sound Lenses with a pre-selected song embedded into the Lens, a Lens that transforms pictures of anyone to appear as if they are singing a song,” Snap said.
The second feature is Cameo Sound Lenses that apply visual effects to put users and their friends as the stars of their own animated music video. To find Lenses with Sounds, users need to look for Lenses that have a musical note icon on the Lens icon.
“These new Sound Lenses will make for a more immersive music experience, and open a proven and powerful way for artists to share music on Snapchat,” it added.
Snapchat’s Sounds feature, which lets users add music to their Snaps, was launched in October last year.
Videos created with music from Sounds on the platform have collectively resulted in nearly 1.2 billion videos that have had around 77 billion views. Nearly 40% of videos created with music from Sounds were shared directly with friends through chat.
Snap’s competitor TikTok is also using music as an important part of the app experience. So it makes smart sense for Snap provide more engaging music-related options.