Snapchat acquires social music creation and short-video sharing app Voisey
According to a recent filing, Snapchat may be taking more steps into the music industry and potentially build yet another TikTok competitor.
Picked up by Business Insider, Voisey’s filing on Companies House changed their registered UK address to Snap’s London office, with a source confirming the acquisition to BI. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but Voisey is currently valued at around $3 million. No comment has been made by Snapchat’s parent company Snap Inc or Voisey.
Voisey was founded in 2018 by a collective of music-tech entrepeneurs and ex-employees of Universal Music, Rdio and Soundio from Norway and London. The app has a very familiar interface, with many lip-synced, vertically scrollable videos. Unlike TikTok who have partnerships with many major record labels, Voisey instead features user-created beats, allowing musicians, vocalists and producers to upload backing tracks to their catalogue. Popular genres on the app include hip-hop, R&B and trap. Creators can record up to 60-second videos and overlay their own vocals on to beats. Clips can be edited, with auto-tune, choral, spacey and other vocal effects added. Users can like and comment on clips as on TikTok, Reels, etc.
An artist named Olivia Knight, known on the app as username Poutyface, recently signed a record deal with Warner Music after success on the platform.
This purchase from Snap could indicate Snapchat feeling left out among TikTok and replicas from the likes of Instagram Reels. Will Snapchat create a TikTok replica or just implement some of the musical element from Voisey within Snapchat?
We are on the verge of a revolution in music creation with the boundaries between creator and audience blurring like never before. Apps like Voisey focus on giving consumers tools that enable them to go from zero to 100 faster than ever before. Just like TikTok enabled consumers to create high-quality videos fast, and Instagram enabled consumers to create high-quality photos fast, the new generation of creator tools are enabling consumers to make music fast. Snapchat sees itself being able to be at the center of that.
Mark Mulligan founder of MIDiA Research to Business Insider
Download Voisey on iPhone here. Upload your own beats online.
This isn’t the first instance of Snapchat dipping its toes in the music industry this year. Last August saw the social media company partner with WMG and UMG, so users can add songs to their snaps.