The move is an attempt to allow musicians to gain distribution as well as recognition on the platform, something TikTok, in particular, has been criticized for, leading to the launch of the SoundOn program. Sounds go viral without a mention or input from the original musician, meanwhile, on YouTube, license-free music is overused or, if the creator can afford it, commissioned while copyrighted music is outright off the table, causing a lot of videos to become demonetized or taken down.
Snapchat’s Sounds Creator Fund is the first step in recognizing the musician as a creator, giving a big boost to independent musicians.
Snap’s Head of Music Partnerships, Ted Suh, said: “We want to support the independent and emerging artists that are driving creation on Snapchat. By providing meaningful funding and creative support, our goal is for artists to feel empowered to continue creating and pursue a career in music.”
The launch website on Snap.com explains: “Snapchat has proven to be a powerful distribution tool for artists and creators to share their music globally, and for Snapchatters to discover and share new music with their real friends. Since launching Sounds, videos created with music from Sounds on Snapchat have collectively resulted in over 2.7 billion videos created and more than 183 billion views!”
It would be a promising step forward for the idea of fairly and freely sharing music on social media platforms as well as creating an influencer career from music.
