Snapchat is copying TikTok's most popular feature

Snapchat today announced that it will soon allow users to add officially licensed music in their videos. Snapchat has signed deals with Warner Music Group, Warner Chappell, Universal Music Publishing Group, the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), and Merlin for bringing a wide variety of tracks to Snapchat users.

Snapchat will have this music feature widely in the fall of 2020 for English users. Snapchat users in Australia and New Zealand can try out this feature from today.

When someone receives a Snap with music, they can swipe up to view the album art, song title, and name of the artist. Snapchat will also have an option called “Play This Song” which will open a page with links to listen to the full song on online music services like Spotify, Apple Music, and SoundCloud.

“We’re always looking for new ways to give Snapchatters creative tools to express themselves. Music is a new dimension they can add to their Snaps that helps capture feelings and moments they want to share with their real friends,” a Snap spokeswoman said in a statement to Variety.

With this new feature, TikTok will be facing fierce competition from Snapchat in the US. Recently, Facebook’s Instagram announced a similar feature in the name of Reels. Like TikTok, Reels will let users create short, 15-second videos set to music and will feature a large number of editing tools such as video speed tools, count down timers and more.  It will however not feature the same feed design as TikTok.

On a related note, Microsoft is in talks with ByteDance to acquire TikTok’s operations in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

This new structure would build on the experience TikTok users currently love, while adding world-class security, privacy, and digital safety protections. The operating model for the service would be built to ensure transparency to users as well as appropriate security oversight by governments in these countries.

Among other measures, Microsoft would ensure that all private data of TikTok’s American users is transferred to and remains in the United States. To the extent that any such data is currently stored or backed-up outside the United States, Microsoft would ensure that this data is deleted from servers outside the country after it is transferred.

You can read Microsoft’s full statement regarding TikTok acquisition talks here.

Source: Variety