Snap inks deal with Universal Music Group to bring major artists to the platform

Snap wants people to discover and make content with music on Snapchat, and today, it secured a major deal to help it achieve that goal.

The company has signed a multiyear partnership with Universal Music Group, the world’s largest record label group, to bring its artists’ tracks to the platform. This means Snapchatters can search for music from various artists like Justin Bieber, The Bee Gees, Katy Perry, and others, and include them in their content, whether that be a snap they send a friend or something they submit to Spotlight — Snapchat’s TikTok rival.

Deals like this, and specifically with UMG, are critical for Snap’s future success as people discover music online and create viral content around it more frequently. TikTok, in particular, has been credited with the revival of certain songs, like Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” as well as the popularity of newer tracks like Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” after it became associated with a dance challenge. Snapchat needs to have as many tracks as possible on its platform to draw people to it. Then, it has to hope people will actually make viral videos. Snap says so far, 521 million videos have been created and viewed 31 billion times since the launch of its Sounds feature, or music catalog.