Snap inks deal with Sony Music, launches AR Music Lenses
Social media app Snapchat's parent, Snap Inc. (formerly Snapchat), has inked a licensing deal with Sony Music Entertainment so the latter's artists' music can be added to Snap's Sounds Library. Additionally, Snap is expanding the music experience by adding Sounds into AR (Augmented Reality) Lenses available in Lens Carousel. The AR music filters would combine AR visuals with popular music. Here are more details.
Why does this story matter?
With the new Sony Music Entertainment deal, Snap now has licensing deals with almost every major music label. The new AR music filters could be seen as a commemoration of this milestone. The new filters also take Snapchat one step closer to competing with the likes of TikTok and Instagram's Reels, both of which are notably more music-centric.
With Sound Lenses, Snap is capitalizing on popularity of Lenses
In a blog post, Snap noted that over 200 million people use AR filters on its platform every day, indicating that they are wildly popular. With the new AR music filters called Sound Lenses, a pre-selected song will be embedded into the Lens. The filter will make the user look like they are singing the song.
Snapchat lets you collaborate with friend for virtual music video
Another iteration of the new Sound Lenses, called Cameo Sound Lenses, uses AR visual effects to make the user and their friend appear in an animated music video. All the new Sound Lenses are identifiable by a small musical note icon on the Lens icon. Snap said the feature will be rolling out sometime soon.
Snap is now closer to competing with Reels, TikTok
We don't blame Snap for launching this feature now. It is probably doing so because since it launched Sounds last year, Snapchat users have created over 1.2 billion videos and accrued over 77 billion views using the feature. Clearly, music is the driving factor behind the success of Snapchat and its rivals TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels.
