Snap adds Sony Music to its library, creates new AR music Lenses

Snapchat has struck a licensing deal with Sony Music Entertainment. Through this new deal between the two companies, Snap will be able to include Sony artists' music into Snap's library of licensed music.

Additional music partners include Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, MERLIN Members, Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell, Kobalt, BMG, NMPA members, DistroKid and thousands of individual songwriters/music publishers.

Snap is expanding the music experience on Snapchat by adding Sounds into our AR Lenses available in the Lens Carousel and experimenting with new formats.

Rolling out soon, the platform will 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. To find Lenses with Sounds, 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.

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.

For example, Snap and Sony Music partnered on an AR Lens to support the launch of Kygo's collaboration with Whitney Houston for her unreleased version of 'Higher Love'. In three days, this limited release Lens resulted in over 16 million Snaps creations, and it received over 55 million views.

Other partnered Lenses with Sony Music artists include Calvin Harris and Rag'n'Bone Man's 'Giant' and G-Eazy and Halsey's 'Him and I'.

When your friend sends you a Snap with music, you can learn more about the music by swiping up. A 'Play This Song' link will also open a webview to Linkfire so you can listen to the full song on your favourite streaming platform (like Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music).

Speaking about the recent deal between Snap and Sony Music, Dennis Kooker, President, Global Digital Business, Sony Music Entertainment, said, "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."

Ben Schwerin, Snap's Senior Vice President of Content and Partnerships, also spoke about the collaboration.

"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," Schwerin said.

"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," Schwerin added.