Snapchat announces Sony Music deal for Sounds and AR good times

Business News Deals Digital By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 16 November 2021

Did you know that “Snapchat is helping change the way Gen Z listens to and discovers new music”? Yeah, I thought that was TikTok too, but apparently not. There you were filling your marketing meetings with endless tedious TikTok chatter and all along it was Snapchat that was changing the way Gen Z listens to and discovers music.

Let’s cancel every marketing plan and sort out a proper SnapChat strategy! Using Snap’s AR tools, obviously. I mean, you haven’t really released a record unless there’s some AR nonsense going on.

How do I know that “Snapchat is helping change the way Gen Z listens to and discovers new music”. Well, Snapchat told me. Why? Because the Snapchat team were super excited about having signed up Sony Music to their Sounds music library. Making it simpler and legaler – which is definitely a word – for Snapchatters to use Sony controlled music in their posts on the platform.

Snapchat launched its in-built music library last year, making it easier for users to integrate music into their posts. It launched with deals in place with Warner Music and Merlin on the recordings side, and a bunch of publishers on the songs side. Distrokid joined the party in March, and then Universal Music signed its labels up in June. The new Sony deal, of course, further expands the range of music available via the Sounds library.

But it’s not just Sony tracks arriving in the Sounds library that is getting the Snapchat team excited. Oh no, there’s other new fangled developments too.

“With over 200 million Snapchatters engaging with augmented reality every day, we know they love using our Lenses to express themselves”, the company said yesterday. “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”.

What does that mean? Well, “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, and Cameo Sound Lenses that apply visual effects to put you and a friend as the stars of your own animated music video. 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”.

Super exciting right? Right? Well, even if you don’t care, Sony Music is excited about all this AR gubbins. In fact, Snapchat reminds us, “Sony Music has leveraged Snap’s powerful AR capabilities over the past few years to share new music with Snapchatters around the globe, and those experiences have had incredible reach”.

So that’s all fun, isn’t it? And if you’re still not excited about any of this, just wait till you read the quotes…

Says Sony Music’s President of Global Digital Business, Dennis Kooker: “We are pleased to be expanding our relationship with Snap to develop new commercial opportunities for our artists around short form video and augmented reality experiences. Through this agreement, our artists have more ways to connect with fans and enhance engagement in their music by enabling their songs to be part of the Lens and Sounds tools that support communication and creative expression among Snapchat’s users”.

Says Snap’s VP Of Content And Partnerships Ben Schwerin: “Our new deal with Sony Music marks a major milestone as Snap now has partnerships with all the major labels, in addition to networks of independent labels and emerging artists. We’re excited to further integrate Sounds into our AR Lenses to provide artists a proven and powerful way to share their music, and create immersive new experiences for our community”.