Snapchat explains why it wants to get into the music business, and it actually makes a lot of sense
"Music is really appealing to us right now because it has some of the same attributes that communication had when we were working on Snapchat in the beginning," Spiegel said during the talk, according to USC's Daily Trojan.
"Right now on your mobile phone, music is largely non-differentiated, so you usually search for a song and you can play it. It plays from four of five different places, they roughly cost the same, but it's also high frequency. After communication, [music is] the highest frequency behavior on your phone and so that in our view, makes it a really interesting opportunity and it's something that we are thinking about."
Snapchat has indicated previously that it would like to become its own music label. An email from June, exposed by the Sony hackers in December, shows that Spiegel met with Dennis Kooker, Sony's president of global digital business.
In an email from Kooker to Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton, Kooker wrote that Spiegel was interested in launching a Snapchat music label. Lynton sits on Snapchat's board. "He thinks every music service in the market is shit and he wants to be a curator," Kooker said about Spiegel's plan.
"He doesn't want to build a music service but he would like to have a record label so he could focus on the artists that he wants to use the platform to promote. He also wants to participate in the upside that he will create by promoting them on the platform."
Spiegel later wrote an emotional response to the leaked emails.
In January, Snapchat unveiled its new Discover feature, which lets users view Snapchat Stories from brands including Comedy Central, Vice, and Cosmopolitan. After 24 hours, the stories disappear and are replaced with fresh content. Madonna used Snapchat's Discover platform to premiere a new music video earlier this month.