Snap shares jump after report of talks with major music studios
Shares of Snap Inc. jumped as much as 6% Friday on reports that the Snapchat parent wants to expand the ways users can include music in their disappearing messages.
Snap, led by Chief Executive Evan Spiegel, is in talks with major music studios — including Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group — to obtain the rights to their catalogs, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The Los Angeles-based company wants users to be able to more easily include songs with their Snapchat messages.
Currently, Snapchatters must record music playing from another app in order to include it in a disappearing message.
When licensed songs are included with certain Snapchat filters, they are each licensed individually.
The partnership would put Snap on equal footing with Facebook and social media upstart TikTok — which both have their own song libraries that can be used to drop music directly into posts.
There is no word yet on when or if the deals will go through — the Journal reports only that talks have “intensified in recent weeks.” Nonetheless, after rising as much as 6% during the day Friday, shares of Snap closed up 4%, at $11.56.
Snap did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
