By Gary Symons
TLL Editor in Chief
The social media site Pinterest has inked a critical licensing deal for music from Warner Music Group, Warner Chappell, Merlin and BMG.
With short video content all the rage on social media channels, this agreement will allow Pinterest users to combine songs from top artists with their short videos.
“Music plays a vital role in elevating storytelling and empowering storytellers, creators and Pinners who inspire the world every day on Pinterest,” said Pinterest Chief Content Officer Malik Ducard. “We are thrilled to partner with Warner Music Group, Warner Chappell Music, Merlin and BMG to bring the latest music tracks to our platform and elevate the content and inspiration created on Pinterest.”
While Pinterest is best known for posting still images, the service last year introduced a short video format it calls Idea Pins, which can be combined with licensed or royalty-free music.
Originally launched in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland in May 2021, Idea Pins let Pinterest creators publish short-form video content directly to the platform. The Idea Pin format includes video recording and editing tools, and users can post videos up to 60 seconds in length on up to 20 Pinterest pages of content.
Pinterest first partnered with the European company Epidemic Sound to provide the background music for video creators. Epidemic is a company that buys music from creators and sells it as royalty-free content primarily to social media sites like Tik Tok or YouTube, among others.
However, the new deal will now allow Pinterest users to access licensed music from many of the world’s top artists, including Ed Sheeran, Silk Sonic, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
It’s a trend that has seen the value of music catalogs soar, driven originally by the surge of demand from TikTok, but later expanding to include other short video competitors, including YouTube Shorts, Instagram’s Reels service, and so on.
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“The future of media will be founded on music,” said Oana Ruxandra, WMG’s Chief Digital Officer & EVP of Business Development. “WMG, including our publishing partners at Warner Chappell, is incredibly excited to partner with Pinterest to help inspire their users to engage, design and imagine. Together, the creative potential for Pinterest audiences will be virtually endless.”
While Pinterest may be a relative latecomer to the short video game, the social media site is no slouch when it comes to user engagement for visual content. The platform has a massive global audience with 433 million Monthly Active Users as of Q2 2022, when it also posted revenues of $666 million, up 9% over the same period last year.
Jeremy Sirota, CEO of Merlin, said the deal is good for Pinterest, and a major bonus for musical artists his company represents.
“This partnership has been a truly collaborative process to visualize how Pinterest creators can make music a more integral part of their experience on the platform,” said Sirota. “We are excited to make independent music part of Pinterest’s exciting feature. Merlin members are excited to see the content that emerges from it.”
In addition to acquiring rights to a vast library of licensed musical hits, the agreement also expands Pinterest’s existing royalty-free music library to include tracks from 7Digital, a leading B2B digital music solutions platform. As well, the music synch licensing specialist Rumblefish is providing Pinterest with music metadata and license management services.
Pinterest says being able to add known and trending songs to Idea Pins will enable creators to engage more deeply and creatively with their audience, unlocking new ways for them to inspire through their content with music expression.
In addition to the new catalog of music and artists, now available on iOS and Android, Pinterest also rolled out a new music user experience to make it easier for Pinners and creators to find and add their favorite tracks to Idea Pins. This new experience will give users the ability to search for their desired track by song title, artist, or keyword.
The deal currently covers the US only, so Pinterest creators in other countries will have some time to wait before the program is extended to other markets.