Source: Snap in talks to license the catalogs of Sony Music, Universal Music, and Warner Music, which will allow Snapchat users to include songs in their posts
Todd Spangler / Variety :
Context & Ripple Effects
This report opens a two-year arc: Snap's 2019 licensing talks with the three major labels were the groundwork for what came after. In August 2020, Snapchat confirmed a TikTok-style set-Snaps-to-music feature, and by October it had shipped song clips from a curated catalog to iOS users.
The end state arrived in June 2021, when Snap and Universal Music Group signed a formal licensing deal covering songs shared in messages and posts. The significance of the original talks is that they mark the moment social platforms stopped treating label catalogs as untouchable and started treating them as content infrastructure.
First-order effects
- If the deals close, Snapchat users can legally include Sony, Universal, and Warner songs in their posts, ending the platform's reliance on unlicensed or royalty-free audio.
- The three majors gain a new direct licensing revenue stream from Snap, negotiated catalog by catalog.
Second-order effects
- Rival short-video and messaging platforms face pressure to strike equivalent licenses, since user posts without popular music look thin next to TikTok's fully licensed feed.
- Labels gain leverage in every subsequent platform negotiation — the Snap talks establish social sharing as a distinct, payable use of recordings beyond streaming.
Third-order effects
- Music catalogs become table-stakes infrastructure that social platforms must license to compete, shifting labels toward streaming-like recurring payment models across consumer apps.
- That same licensing posture extends forward: Universal and Warner are reportedly nearing AI licensing deals with companies including Suno and Udio, applying payment structures similar to streaming to a new generation of uses.
The trend: Major-label catalogs are being re-licensed layer by layer across new consumption surfaces — social video first, then generative AI — with each deal normalizing streaming-style payments for the next.