{"id":199492,"date":"2024-05-02T08:06:24","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T07:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=199492"},"modified":"2024-05-02T09:59:17","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T08:59:17","slug":"universal-music-and-tiktok-strike-new-licensing-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/universal-music-and-tiktok-strike-new-licensing-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal Music and TikTok strike new licensing deal \u2013 including ‘improved remuneration’ for UMG artists and songwriters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Universal Music Group and TikTok have struck what they call “a new multi-dimensional licensing agreement”.<\/p>\n

According to a joint press release issued today (May 2), the deal “will deliver significant industry-leading benefits for UMG\u2019s global family of artists, songwriters and labels and will return their music to TikTok’s billion-plus global community”.<\/p>\n

UMG and TikTok say that they “are now working expeditiously” to return music by artists represented by Universal Music Group and songwriters represented by Universal Music Publishing Group to TikTok “in due course”.<\/p>\n

MBW understands that Universal’s <\/strong>catalog of ~4 million songs and ~3 million recordings will be available on TikTok within one-to-two weeks, at which stage, all videos that had previously been muted will be unmuted<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Sir Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO, Universal Music Group, said:\u00a0\u201cThis new chapter in our relationship with TikTok focuses on the value of music, the primacy of human artistry and the welfare of the creative community.<\/p>\n

“We look forward to collaborating with the team at TikTok to further the interests of our artists and songwriters and drive innovation in fan engagement while advancing social music monetization.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Credit: Sthanlee B. Mirador\/Sipa USA\/Alamy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cThis new chapter in our relationship with TikTok focuses on the value of music, the primacy of human artistry and the welfare of the creative community.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sir Lucian Grainge, Universal Music Group<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Shou Chew, CEO of TikTok, added: “Music is\u00a0<\/strong>an integral part of the TikTok ecosystem and we are pleased to have found a path forward with Universal Music Group.<\/p>\n

“We are committed to working together to drive value, discovery and promotion for all of UMG’s amazing artists and songwriters, and deepen their ability to grow, connect and engage with the TikTok community.”<\/p>\n

<\/div> <\/div> <\/p>\n

The announcement brings to an end a long-running licensing dispute between the two companies.<\/p>\n

TikTok’s\u00a0falling out<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Universal Music Group<\/a><\/strong> came to light at the end of January, when UMG announced<\/a> that its agreement with TikTok was set to expire on January 31, 2024.<\/p>\n

UMG confirmed that the companies had not agreed to terms for a new deal, and upon expiration of their agreement, UMG, including Universal Music Publishing Group<\/a>, would \u201ccease licensing content<\/strong>\u201d to TikTok and TikTok Music services.<\/p>\n

Alongside the announcement, Universal published an \u2018open letter to the artist and songwriter community\u2019, in which it details the reasons why the companies\u2019 negotiations have ended without a deal.<\/p>\n

UMG said in the letter that during its contract renewal discussions with TikTok, it has been \u201cpressing\u201d the platform on \u201cthree critical issues\u201d including \u201cappropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok\u2019s users\u201d.<\/p>\n

The new agreement appears to address these issues.<\/p>\n

As part of the deal, the companies say they “will work together to realize new monetization opportunities” using TikTok’s e-commerce capabilities and will work together on campaigns supporting UMG\u2019s artists across genres and territories globally.<\/p>\n

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TikTok also said that it will continue to “invest significant resources into building artist-centric tools” that will help UMG artists “realize their potential” on the platform.<\/p>\n

Plus, TikTok said that tools including its Add to Music App feature, data and analytics, and integrated ticketing capabilities “will benefit artists, both financially and in building their global fanbases using TikTok’s scale and engaged community, while strengthening online safety protections for artists and their fans”.<\/p>\n

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“Music is\u00a0<\/strong>an integral part of the TikTok ecosystem and we are pleased to have found a path forward with Universal Music Group.”<\/p>\n

Shou Chew, TikTok<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In addition, TikTok and UMG said that they will work together “to ensure AI development across the music industry will protect human artistry and the economics that flow to those artists and songwriters”.<\/p>\n

TikTok also committed to working with UMG to remove unauthorized AI-generated music from the platform, as well as tools to improve artist and songwriter attribution.<\/p>\n

The announcement added that the joint agreement “marks a new era of strategic collaboration between the two organizations, built on a shared commitment to help UMG\u2019s artists and songwriters achieve their creative and commercial potential”.<\/p>\n

The statement continued: “By harnessing TikTok’s best-in-class technology, marketing and promotional capabilities, UMG and TikTok will deliver improved remuneration for UMG\u2019s songwriters and artists, new promotional and engagement opportunities for their recordings and songs and industry-leading protections with respect to generative AI”.<\/p>\n

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“We are delighted to welcome UMG and UMPG back to TikTok.”<\/p>\n

Ole Obermann, TikTok<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In a statement issued on Thursday, Ole Obermann, TikTok’s Global Head of Music Business Development, said: “We are delighted to welcome UMG and UMPG back to TikTok.<\/p>\n

“We look forward to working together to forge a path that creates deeper connections between artists, creators, and fans. In particular, we will work together to make sure that AI tools are developed responsibly to enable a new era of musical creativity and fan engagement while protecting human creativity”.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/figure>

\u201cDeveloping transformational partnerships with important innovators is critical to UMG\u2019s commitment to promoting an environment in which artists and songwriters prosper.”<\/p>\n

Michael Nash, Universal Music Group<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Michael Nash, Chief Digital Officer and EVP, Universal Music Group, added:\u00a0\u201cDeveloping transformational partnerships with important innovators is critical to UMG\u2019s commitment to promoting an environment in which artists and songwriters prosper.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re gratified to renew our relationship with TikTok predicated on significant advancements in commercial and marketing opportunities as well as protections provided to our industry-leading roster on their platform.<\/p>\n

“With the constantly evolving ways that social interaction, fan engagement, music discovery and artistic ingenuity converge on TikTok, we see great potential in our collaboration going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On March 1, Universal Music Publishing\u2019s<\/strong> catalog of ~4 million songs became unlicensed for use<\/a> on TikTok, joining UMG\u2019s portfolio of ~3 million recordings, whose license on TikTok expired without renewal on February 1.<\/p>\n

In the days following the bombshell news, Downtown, Hipgnosis and NMPA rallied<\/a> behind Universal Music Group in its fight with TikTok.<\/p>\n

UMG also earned<\/a> another supporter in its fight: A2IM<\/a>, the US trade body that represents over 600 independent recorded music companies including\u00a0Beggars Group<\/a>,\u00a0Secretly Group<\/a>,\u00a0Partisan<\/a>,\u00a0Cinq Music<\/a>,\u00a0Better Noise<\/a>, and Yep Roc.<\/p>\n

In March, Emmanuel de Buretel, founder of France-headquartered indie label Because Music and a former exec at Virgin and EMI, came out in support<\/a> of Universal Music Group<\/a>\u00a0in its licensing dispute with TikTok.<\/p>\n

On March 14, we learned that, amid the ongoing licensing dispute between Universal Music Group<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(UMG) and\u00a0TikTok<\/strong>, UMG had issued<\/a> over 37,000 takedown requests<\/strong>\u00a0to TikTok, resulting in\u00a0120 million videos<\/strong>\u00a0being muted.<\/p>\n

By the time MBW had published that article, TikTok had already muted the audio on videos featuring UMG-licensed<\/strong> music, but its detection mechanism was being bypassed by \u2018modified\u2019 (sped up or otherwise changed) versions of UMG-owned tracks uploaded by users.<\/p>\n

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Around a month later, on Thursday, April 11, the music of Taylor Swift, one of Universal Music Group’s biggest stars, started reappearing<\/a> on TikTok<\/strong> \u2013 despite the licensing dispute between the social media platform and UMG.<\/p>\n

Swift has both recording and publishing agreements with UMG. UMG\u2019s\u00a0Republic Records\u00a0is Swift\u2019s label in the US, and she\u00a0signed a deal<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Universal Music Publishing Group\u00a0in 2020.<\/p>\n

As we explained the other week, Swift is notable in the music industry for the unusual amount of control she has over her own music.<\/p>\n

As the\u00a0Hollywood Reporter<\/em>\u00a0noted<\/a>, Swift has owned the publishing rights to her songs since 2019; meanwhile, Variety<\/em>\u00a0speculated<\/a>\u00a0that TikTok likely \u201creached a separate deal with Swift,\u201d as she owns many of her own master recordings.<\/p>\n

Swift’s return to TikTok arrived around a week before the release of her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, <\/em>on Friday, April 19. That same day, TikTok revealed details<\/a> of an exclusive campaign around the superstar’s album that included an in-app experience featuring multiple \u201cfirst-of-its-kind features\u201d.<\/p>\n

Since joining TikTok in 2021, Taylor Swift has amassed a following of more than\u00a025.3 million<\/strong>\u00a0fans and has earned more than 223.7 million likes across her content.<\/p>\n

TikTok reports that hashtags related to the singer \u201ccontinue to garner high engagement\u201d, with the #SwiftTok hashtag growing to over\u00a02.4 million<\/strong>\u00a0videos creations and #TaylorsVersion earning more than\u00a02 million<\/strong>\u00a0videos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The announcement brings to an end a long-running licensing dispute between the two companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":199494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[483,5874,269],"class_list":["post-199492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-news","tag-taylor-swift","tag-tiktok","tag-universal-music-group"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}