Photo Credit: Alexander Shatov
Snap has officially launched the “Snapchat Sounds Creator Fund,” which execs say will provide up to $100,000 in monthly “grants” to indie artists who use DistroKid to distribute their music on the social media app.
The Snapchat parent company reached out to DMN with word of the grant program today. DistroKid began offering Snapchat distribution for its sizable indie userbase back in March of 2021, and beginning in August, certain of these music professionals will have the chance to secure $5,000 payments (directed to “up to 20 songs per month,” for the initially noted $100,000 total) from the Snapchat owner.
“Snap wants to help emerging, independent artists produce quality content and build their brands by recognizing Sounds creators who are driving trends and defining cultural moments – not just based on their follower numbers,” communicated the company, which, notwithstanding a recent stock-price plunge, still has a market cap of around $16 billion.
“Snap anticipates awarding up to $100,000 in grants during each month of the program,” higher-ups made clear, albeit without disclosing this program’s precise length. The company’s formal release mentions providing the grants (and “creative support” for recipients) “over the next several months,” however, and the program’s fine print underscores Snap’s right to end the initiative “at any time.”
The grants are specifically available to U.S.-based “emerging, independent” acts who upload their “original music through the DistroKid and Snap Sounds offering,” according to the above-highlighted fine print.
Digging further into the grants’ terms, eligible indie artists, besides residing in the States and distributing to Snapchat via DistroKid, must be over the age of 18 (or 16 with “parental consent”). There isn’t an application process of any kind, nor do there appear to be requirements for how the grants are used.
Regarding the payments’ most notable stipulation, Snap is poised to unilaterally select the winners, per the text, and DistroKid will then inform the appropriate artists. If any of these persons fails to return an acceptance form within a week after receiving it, the $5,000 payment at hand “will be forfeited.”
Snap, having inked a licensing deal with the final Big Three label last November, also took the opportunity to reveal that “videos created with music from Sounds on Snapchat have collectively resulted in over 2.7 billion videos created and over 183 billion views” to date.
Back in May, DMN was first to report that SUISA had filed an infringement suit against Snapchat, which unveiled agreements with Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary earlier in 2022.