Facebook has launched BARS, a content creation app that’s much like TikTok. BARS is for all the budding rappers. Currently, BARS is in the beta testing phase. The only people who can access this app right now are the Apple users residing in the U.S.
BARS is the brainchild of Facebook’s New Product Experimentation (NPE) R&D team. In fact, BARS is the second launch from Facebook’s NPE team this year. The first one being Collab, a music video app. DJ Iyer, the Community Manager of BARS, has stated that the Covid-19 pandemic is the biggest inspiration behind the creation of BARS. Both Collab and BARS are for promising musicians who have lost access to live music, due to the pandemic. A group of eager rappers is primarily responsible for creating BARS.
Rappers can produce songs and stream on social media
With BARS, rappers can select one of their best professionally-crafted beats. The world-be rappers can initially focus on their songs’ lyrics and record their raps with the beats. Also, rappers have the liberty to fine-tune the song using the rhymes auto-suggested by the BARS app.
Additionally, BARS has several built-in filters ( both audio and video) that perfectly fit the songs they have recorded. For audio refining, AM Radio, AutoTune, Clean features are available. BARS also promises to update the Freestyle mode beats on a weekly basis. One can easily select their raps from three major categories namely New, Best and Trending. The videos created with BARS can be of 60-second duration or less. One can save the final video on their phone and share it on any social platform.
Will it be the next TikTok?
Even though BARS is an innovative attempt by Facebook for aspiring rappers, the similarities of BARS and TikTok are simply unavoidable. The User Interfaces of TikTok and BARS are unbelievably similar. The only difference being, TikTok’s “Following” and “For You” have changed into “Featured” and “New” on BARS. Also, in BARS, the engagement buttons are at the lower-right corner, whereas TikTok is at the lower-left side. TikTok is already a trending platform among rappers. The rapper community on TikTok is already huge whereas BARS is only starting out.
However, there basic intent between these two platforms is different. TikTok is more focused on influencers and increasing their content views. Alternatively, lipsyncing and transitions are not mandatory for content creation on BARS. In fact, BARS encourages the new rappers to focus much more on the lyrics. Since BARS is in the Beta testing mode, users have to sign-up and join the waiting list to download it. Also, no previous rapping experience is required to sign-up for BARS.
Facebook has mentioned that any news updates related to BARS will be revealed on Instagram. The future of BARS can’t be still gauged, but it is a universal truth that all apps don’t work well. The bars are pretty high this time since TikTok’s popularity is massive. Facebook had to shut-down Hobbi, its video version of Pinterest, in the past, as well. Let’s keep the fingers crossed.
