Do snares always have to hit on the second beat?

No. There are no rules in music. That's just when they sound best, most of the time. Do what you think sunds good, experiment.
 
Not necessarily but I did hear this one hit boy song where he didn't put the snare in the traditional second beat and man, it basically ruined the entire rhythm of the beat completely.
 
music in 4/4 is usually defined by what happens on beats 1 and 3 (the down-beats)

snares on 2 and 4 are known as back-beats and are the hallmark of most pop music using drums - the flow of accents in the bar are broken by the use of both downbeats (kicks) and back-beats (snares)

that said, a snare can hit anywhere you want it to as it provides rhythmic push/pull - think of the tracks you like and then listen/analyse what the snare does over several bars - you should find that it probably always hits on 2 and 4 but it also has hits off-the beat at the 8th or 16th - this creates interest and movement, both useful for making a track more listen-able

going over the top and only playing snares off-the-beat may be novel but will quickly wear thin and loose you listeners - as with anything we do, meeting the expectations of listeners is far more important than breaking those expectations with novel twists and turns
 
Here're some examples where the snare isn't on beats 2+4 and I think it works really well...
Herbie Hancock- Chameleon


Noisia- Could This Be


Also, a lot of dubstep tunes have snare purely on beat 3, but that could be interpreted as 2+4 halftime.
 
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