Snap Inc. in talks with Sony Music, Universal Music Group and more

Snap Inc. is reportedly in conversations with leading music labels to add more licensed music to Snapchat.

Snapchat is looking to solicit rights to a broad set of music catalogs from music labels like Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The move maybe a strive towards competing with other major platforms who have already incorporated music on the platform like Instagram Music, TikTok and more.

In March, 2019, Facebook partnered with major music labels in India like Yash Raj Films, Zee Music Company, and T-Series Music to incorporate their music in Instagram Stories in India.

Including music in a post to express and share with peers on the platform, is one of the favorite activities of users on any platform, given the popularity of such activities among the users and various platforms' efforts to improve the features that support these activities.

Snapchat in December, 2018 introduced Lens Challenges that were almost similar to the ones on TikTok, apart from having a themed-lens incorporated. The first challenge involved selecting a specific lens, and singing along Jingle Bells by Gwen Stefani.

Also Read: Snapchat launches the first-ever social impact Lens Challenge, Because Of You

As of January, 2019, TikTok has 20 million active users in India and 500 million active users worldwide, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.

TikTok has explosively grown in Asian countries.

On the other hand, Snapchat has 300 million+ monthly active users, as accounted by Omnicore. As the numbers suggest, Snapchat lies way behind TikTok in terms of the userbase.

Facebook duplicating stories, increasing popularity of apps like TikTok and inferior standard of the Android app, all fueled the fire dooming Snapchat.

But, the recently released revamped Android app gained positive reviews from users and Snapchat's new features like AR filters, Bitmoji Party, Snap Map, Snap Originals, Lens Challenges and more may help the platform find a place for itself.

Moreover, if Snapchat successfully incorporates licensed music on the platform, it will aid the growth. The deals with the music labels are not final, as of yet, and it's uncertain how soon or if the deal would be locked in.