Snapchat is (probably) going to be the next MTV
Snapchat wants to be a one-stop-shop for everything we ever want to consume — mobile-wise, at least. We already know that Snapchat is the most popular social media app for teens and the most relevant to our daily lives, but recently the app has been taking ambitious bites out of the narrative, news, and video content realms. Now, Snapchat is adding a music video partnership to its plate.
This Tuesday through Friday, Snapchat will release one new music video a day from Josh Legg (who goes by the musical handle “Goldroom”). As usual, Snapchat isn’t going to do anything quite as expected: the music videos have been shot in vertical, instead of traditional horizontal, video — meaning, the videos will be easy to watch on your smartphone the way you’re used to holding it.
Snapchat’s strategy with its new Discover feature has been to present curated content, unlike the crowd-sourced models of other content aggregates like Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest, or your Facebook newsfeed. That is, Snapchat chooses content for you, on the recommendations of their in-house editors. Sometimes, that can be a relief! There’s a limited amount of content in each Discover tab, and watching a few videos on the Comedy Central page and then getting some animal news from Discovery is a great way to feel on top of pop culture without feeling overwhelmed.
But isn’t that crowd-sourced, bottom-up method really the best way to discover music in particular? Most complaints about the music industry boil down to a sense of being force-fed music that somebody else thinks you’ll like. That’s why something becoming popular makes it less cool. The most fun aural discoveries come from links or Spotify playlists (or mixtapes, if you’re old) from friends, sharing music that has made a personal and emotional impact on them. Debating which album is better, going to shows together, becoming fans of a group with your own group of friends — all of those IRL experiences have a much different feel than the more clinically communal experience of watching the TRL countdown (and that reference outs me as a 90s child).
We’ll have to wait and see to find out if Snapchat’s bid for music dominance will work, but for now, we’re pretty excited for Goldroom to get some love! If you haven’t heard of them before, get ready for some light synthpop happiness. Check out one of their current music videos below.
And don’t forget, you can find us on Snapchat @teengiggles to get an inside view of life at HelloGiggles!
(Image via here.)
