Snapchat has been in negotiations with music companies including the big three Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to license song catalogs for the Snapchat app, according to two industry sources familiar with the talks, confirming a Wall Street Journal report.
The licensing deal would come at a time when tech companies are increasingly leaning into music features as a core part of their offerings. The popularity of these videos has allowed social media platforms to launch hit songs Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” which has been the number one song on the Billboard Top 100 for several weeks, first gained popularity through TikTok as a meme.
Facebook secured a licensing deal with the three major record labels back in 2018, allowing users to put licensed music in their videos across all of its platforms, including Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and Oculus. The company has used the license to roll out features like Lip Sync Live, an obvious copycat of Musical.ly, which was acquired by Chinese giant ByteDance and folded into TikTok last year.
As music copyright issues have been a point of contention between record labels and companies like YouTube and Peloton in recent months, it’ll be in Snap’s best interest to secure licenses quickly.
