Snapchat’s aims to pay independent artists up to $100,000 monthly through its Sounds Creator Fund
Emerging and independent artists distributing their music on Snapchat via Distrokid will be eligible to apply for monthly grants.
Credit: Chesnot/Getty
Snapchat has announced a new Sounds Creator Fund aimed at developing artists who distribute music on its platform.
Emerging and independent artists distributing their music on Snapchat via Distrokid will be eligible to apply for monthly grants of up to $5,000 a song, capped at 20 songs total for a maximum grant of $100,000, according to Variety. The program is open to artists based in the US who are at least 16 years old and have parental consent where needed.
Snapchat will evaluate the artists’ level of engagement on the platform before approving the grant, which will not be open to musicians signed with music label and publisher partners of Snapchat, which includes most of the major labels like Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Publishing.
“Snap wants to help emerging, independent artists produce quality content and build their brands by recognising Sounds creators who are driving trends and defining cultural moments – not just based on their follower numbers,” the company told Variety in a statement.
Snapchat first introduced the Sounds on Snap feature in 2020, which allows users to add music to their videos much in the way competitor TikTok does. Since the introduction of the feature, Snapchat claims that 2.7 billion videos have been created using the feature that have garner a total of over 183 billion views.
Snapchat announced a partnership with Live Nation earlier this year in April to introduce AR to the application in order to enhance chosen concerts and festivals. “Fans can open the Snapchat Camera at select concerts for AR experiences that are seamlessly built into the experience of attending a show, extending the artist’s creative canvas into the crowd,” the platform explained
“At festivals, attendees will be able to use AR to try on merchandise, find friends, and discover exclusive landmarks around the festival grounds.”
