Instagram and Facebook take on TikTok and Smule in India as they introduce music for 'Stories'

• Facebook has launched new music features for ‘Stories’ for its own platform as well as Instagram.
  
• ‘Lip Sync Live’ will allow users to dance along with songs and ‘Lyrics for Instagram’ will let users sing along to music tracks.
  
• It will be taking on popular apps in the Indian market like TikTok and Smule.
  

TikTok, the Chinese short video making app, will now have to contend against Facebook. The Mark Zuckerberg owned social networking platform is now allowing users to add music to their posts and ‘Stories’.

Facebook’s popularity may be waning midst security concerns and privacy issues, but Instagram — also owned by Facebook — is still the most widely used image sharing social network.

Both, Facebook and Instagram, will allow users to share ‘stories’ — posts that only last 24 hours — with music. They can also customise how they want to add music to their stories in two different ways.

Users can either lip sync to their favorite songs using ‘Lip Sync Live’ or show off their voice through ‘Lyrics on Instagram’.

Facebook vs Tiktok and Smule

TikTok’s main draw for users being able to add music to short 15 second videos, something that was not an option on Facebook and Instagram so far. Users who don’t want to sing but create musical content, could do so on TikTok.

Even Smule, the karaoke app that allows you to sing along to songs, is going to have to more competition with ‘Lyrics on Instagram’.

Smule has 40 million monthly active users globally. TikTok, on the other hand, has 120 million monthly active users — three times Smule’s users — only within India.

Even so, Facebook’s massive reach extends to 270 million users in the country. It’s only Instagram that has to beat our TikTok coming in at 72 million active users.

Facebook has cemented partnerships with Indian music labels like T-Series Music, Zee Music Company, and Yash Raj Films. This allows it to feature songs on its platform without violating any licensing issues.