Universal Music Group (UMG) have secured the future of Taylor Swift-backed TikTok videos by signing a new multi-dimensional licensing agreement.
the deal will deliver significant industry-leading benefits for UMG’s global family of artists, songwriters and labels and will return their music to TikTok’s billion-plus global community.
The news comes after UMG failed to reach a deal with the platform’s parent company, ByteDance, over royalties earlier this year. The music label pulled its music from the platform as of Jan 31 2024, accusing the social media giant of building a “music-based business without paying fair value for music”.
The joint agreement marks a new era of strategic collaboration between the two organisations, built on a shared commitment to help UMG’s artists and songwriters achieve their creative and commercial potential.
Fans on TikTok can look forward to the return of UMG’s recorded music and publishing catalogues and once again enjoy creating videos using music from some of the world’s biggest artists and songwriters as well as exciting emerging talent.
As part of the agreement, both organisations will collaborate to realise new monetisation opportunities utilising TikTok’s growing e-commerce capabilities and campaigns supporting UMG’s artists across genres and territories globally.
TikTok will continue to invest significant resources into building artist-centric tools that will help UMG artists realize their potential on the growing platform. Tools including “Add to Music App,” enhanced data and analytics, and integrated ticketing capabilities will benefit artists financially and in building their global fanbases using TikTok’s scale and engaged community while strengthening online safety protections for artists and their fans.
In addition, TikTok and UMG will work together to ensure AI development across the music industry and protect human artistry and the economics that flow to those artists and songwriters. TikTok is 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.
“We are delighted to welcome UMG and UMPG back to TikTok. 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,” said Ole Obermann, TikTok’s global head of music business development.
“Developing transformational partnerships with important innovators is critical to UMG’s commitment to promoting an environment in which artists and songwriters prosper. We’re 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. 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,” said Michael Nash, chief digital officer and EVP, Universal Music Group.
Closer to home, Sam Kelly, managing director at Hello Social, took to LinkedIn to celebrate the win. “Our calls “please don’t stop the music” have been answered,” he said.
“As a leader in brand partnership facilitation across the Australian music scene, Hello is excited to build on a shared commitment to helping artists and songwriters achieve their creative and commercial potential by harnessing TikTok’s best-in-class technology, marketing, and promotional capabilities.”
UMG and TikTok 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.
