Pinterest competitor TikTok wins new music. The company today announced that its video-focused “Idea Pins” feature will now include the ability to add popular tracks from top artists, thanks to new licensing agreements with Warner Music Group, Warner Chappell Music, Merlin and BMG. This will expand the music already provided through 7Digital’s Pinterest royalty-free music library, the company noted.
With the launch, Pinterest says there will be thousands of new tracks available from artists like Dan + Shay, Bruno Mars, Michael Bublé, Twenty One Pilots, Zach Bryan, Paramore and more.
To make it easier to navigate and access this larger music catalog, the Pinterest mobile app will also introduce a new music experience on iOS and Android. Here, creators will be able to search for music by artist, track name, or keyword to find the right song to go with their Idea Pin.
To use this feature, creators will first open Idea Pins and then click on the music icon to enter the screen where they can search and add the desired track. They will then save their idea Pin and publish it.
The update could help make Pinterest Idea Pins a more viable competitor to TikTok as well as other social apps that have ventured into the short video format, like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts – all of which already include the ability add popular songs from major labels.
Launched last year, Idea Pins are Pinterest’s unique take on the now-ubiquitous TikTok short video format, which has appeared in many apps, including Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, Netflix, and most recently, Twitter. Instead of copying TikTok directly, as others have done, 60-Second Idea Pins allow creators to tell their stories using a combination of videos, images, music, and other creative tools. editing – but in a way where the pins themselves can be leveraged. , which is similar to Stories. The Idea Pins feed, meanwhile, scrolls vertically, like TikTok.
This format can be useful for the types of videos that Pinterest creators would like to create, as it allows them to add things to their pins that a video-only feature wouldn’t allow so easily – like an ingredient list and of steps for a recipe, for example, or the names of the products used in a makeup tutorial.
Pinterest users can like, share and comment on Idea Pins. But they can also save them to different boards for later reference — an organizational feature that TikTok lacks today.
This summer, Pinterest also opened up the Idea Pins format to advertisers, with the launch of “Idea Ads”.
“Music plays a vital role in elevating storytelling and empowering the storytellers, creators and Pinners who inspire the world every day on Pinterest,” said Pinterest Chief Content Officer Malik Ducard in a statement. on launch. “We’re thrilled to partner with Warner Music Group, Warner Chappell Music, Merlin and BMG to bring the latest music to our platform and elevate the content and inspiration created on Pinterest.”
