Snapchat users will now be able to use songs from Kanye West, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift after Snap and Universal Music Group inked a deal that gives the social media network access to the music giant's expansive catalog.
The deal underscores the ongoing confluence of social media, music and ecommerce.
For UMG, the agreement provides an opportunity to boost exposure of its artists. The company has previously worked with Snap on a more piecemeal basis, with some of its artists' music already available on the app.
For Snap, which will use the music in its Sounds feature, the deal will help them compete with TikTok and other social media platforms increasingly reliant on music to engage users.
Sounds, launched in October, lets users incorporate songs in their video and photo posts and messages on Snapchat. Already the feature has been used in 521 million videos garnering 31 billion views, according to Snap. Nearly 45% of those were sent as direct messages, Snap said.
Olivia Rodrigo's hit song "Driver's License", which premiered in January 2021 under the UMG subsidiary Interscope label, has featured in over 10 million user-generated Snapchat videos using Sounds. Collectively those videos have been viewed over 325 million times, the companies said. Notorious B.I.G.'s 1994 hit "Big Poppa" has been included in 5 millions Snapchat creations, accumulating 108 million views.
As part of the deal, UMG will also be developing AR filters for Snapchat – which Snap calls lenses – tethered to some of its artists, according to a company statement. UMG noted that those lenses can be used to sell artist merchandise.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, other than being described as a "global" and "multi-year agreement."
Snap and UMG have collaborated numerous times in the past. The two companies created a lens for Billie Eilish's 2016 single "Ocean Eyes." In 2018 Nicki Minaj created the first lens selling artist merchandise in conjunction with her album "Queen." And emerging artist Benee incorporated her track "Supalonely" into a lens in 2019, which has been viewed over 1 billion times.
Snap also has music deals with Warner Music Group, Sony Music Publishing and others.
Over five billion messages are shared on Snapchat per day on average, Snap said.
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Songtradr, a Santa Monica-based music rights and licensing startup with deep Aussie ties, has been gobbling up smaller competitors in the past several months. On Monday, it announced it raised $50 million in Series D funding.
Since January, Songtradr acquired four music licensing businesses, including creative music agency MassiveMusic and livestreaming-focused licensing platform Pretzel.
"Songtradr is rapidly accelerating as we continue to develop our tech-enabled B2B music ecosystem and integrate our new acquisitions," said CEO Paul Wiltshire in a statement.
Wiltshire, a former musician and producer who moved from Australia to Los Angeles to launch the company seven years ago, has benefited from his homeland connections.
This round of funding was led by several Australian investors including Regal, Aware Super, Perennial, Argo and Greencape, as well as Richard White, the CEO of Wisetech Global.
To date, the company has raised more than $100 million in funding, and this round brings the valuation to over $300 million. Last August, Songtrader closed a $30 million round of Series C led by St. Baker Australian family office, which is an amalgam of other prominent Australian family offices and several existing investors.
Songtradr boasts more than 1.5 million songs in its database, enabling companies like Disney, Netflix, Apple, Coca-Cola, Amazon and Google can purchase rights to them.
Last year, the company said it wanted to take advantage of the explosion of video streaming services hungry for more music. It's said it is on track for a 100% year-over-year revenue increase in 2021, after seeing a 100% year-over-year revenue increase in 2020.
Songtradr also offers a tier-based subscription service that gives artists access to analytics and a greater proportion of revenue.
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MassiveMusic, which uses data analytics to help brands customize what sounds and songs to feature across media, has approximately 85 employees across offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, London, New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo. The company's list of clients includes Nike, Heineken, Apple and UEFA.
"MassiveMusic is the largest music agency working with brands and advertisers," said Songtradr CEO Paul Wiltshire. "There will be no redundant stakeholders during the acquisition process and very limited restructuring. It's very complementary from a structural point of view."
And the benefits go both ways, said Wiltshire.
"Acquisition of MassiveMusic will lay the groundwork for future tech products that we are rolling out, including one that will be released in the third quarter this year," said Wiltshire, who declined to speak about what exactly that tech will look like. "It will be able to create more visibility and efficiency, and it will be highly complementary to MassiveMusic's clients."
Songtradr raised $30 million in a Series C round last summer, and the Santa Monica-based startup has so far made four acquisitions in 2021. MassiveMusic is its largest to date.
With more than 1.5 million tracks on their platform, Songtradr says it has licensed over 300,000 tracks since it launched in 2014, ranking it among the largest music licensing platforms.
In 2019, it acquired Big Sync Music, and since gone on to acquire Cuesongs, Song Zu, Pretzel, Tunefind and made an investment into ASX listed music data company Jaxta.
"Our ambition is to be the largest B2B global music ecosystem and marketplace", Wiltshire said.The acquisition allows Songtradr to make use of MassiveMusic's extensive music library for their existing customers. It comes at a crucial moment in the industry, when musicians are increasingly embracing live streaming and short-form videos on new apps like TikTok.
As music streaming dramatically increases on new platforms, the music industry is expected to double in size to $131 billion by 2030.
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