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Business News Deals Digital Labels & Publishers
Universal Music announces new deal with Shapchat
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 25 June 2021
OK, and now it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The winner of Expansive Multifaceted Global Agreement Of The Week! It was a close run thing this time, but it’s Universal Music and Snapchat who take the prize thanks to their announcement yesterday of, well, an “expansive multifaceted global agreement”.
“Universal Music Group, the world leader in music-based entertainment, and Snap Inc, today announced an expansive multifaceted global agreement”, they said, accepting the award. Congratulations everybody.
I just sent your prize via a Snap group chat. You’ve now got 24 hours to open it. You’d better get there quick. Time is ticking away. Tick tock, tick tock! Oh, no sorry, not TikTok. Snapchat!
But what, you are almost certainly not asking, is this “expansive multifaceted global agreement” all about? Well, it will only “allow Snapchat’s users to incorporate UMG’s catalogue of recorded music and content into creative tools, including Sounds and augmented reality Lenses”. You can work out for yourself which bits are expansive and which bits are multifaceted. It’s all global.
“We’re THRILLED to build on our innovative and collaborative relationship with Snap and to provide Snapchat’s users with access to UMG’s vast catalogue of the most iconic recordings of all time”, shouts the major’s EVP Of Digital Strategy Michael Nash.
“When entertainment and social media companies work together”, he adds, “fans are able to creatively build close-knit communities around the artists and the music they love, all while ensuring that artists are fairly compensated for the use of their music. We’re looking forward to working with Snap to unlock even more innovative features and allow creativity and expressive communication across Snapchat’s community”.
As are we all, Mike. Snapchat has been busy doing deals with the music industry of late, of course, as it follows the lead of its competitors in the video sharing app space by adding a library of music clips that can be easily synced into the videos that users create. That library is the above mentioned Sounds.
The social media company announced deals with Warner Music and indie-label repping Merlin last year, as well as securing licences from various music publishers, including the publishing side of Universal. The label side of the mega-major has also collaborated with Snapchat around certain key releases. And now, remember, there’s a big old Expansive Multifaceted Global Agreement.
“It’s been exciting to see how quickly Snapchatters have taken to our Sounds creative tool, and in turn the immense impact it has had on the music industry as they discover and share music with their friends and the community”, exclaims Ben Schwerin, Snap’s SVP of Content And Partnerships. “Universal Music Group has been a tremendous partner over the past several years, and we’re THRILLED to expand our relationship to bring Snapchatters even more music to express themselves and create engaging Snaps”.
And yes, OK, it might have been the double THRILLED that really clinched the Expansive Multifaceted Global Agreement Of The Week prize for Universal Music and Snapchat. But I mean, as expansive multifaceted global agreements go, I think we can all be in agreement that this one is definitely expansive, multifaceted and global. See you next week!
