In early February, there was a minor feud between Universal Music Group (UMG) and TikTok. The two labels failed to reach an agreement to renew the collaboration agreement signed in 2021, under which UMG music could appear on TikTok, and the result was this: songs by artists under the UMG label disappeared from the ubiquitous video platform. . After a rather bitter exchange of accusations, TikTok and UMG reached an agreement again.

Context. Let’s start from the beginning. On January 30, UMG released a statement explaining that TikTok offered them a worse deal than before, did not want to pay artists fairly, did not fight against AI-generated songs, and made little effort to do so. Stop content that violates artists’ copyrights. In his own words, TikTok was “trying to build a business based on music without paying fair value for the music.”

TikTok, of course, responded. The company said UMG put its greed ahead of artists’ interests and that Universal chose not to rely on support from the platform, which sees itself as “a free promotional and discovery tool for their talent.”

everyone lost. On the one hand, TikTok, a highly musical social network, has lost a powerful ally in delivering songs. UMG, on the other hand, has lost a key expansion platform that may not be vital for the biggest global stars (Post Malone, Ariana Grande, Adele, Coldplay…) but vital for emerging artists. And potentially millions of users have lost audio from videos where they used UMG music and will now be muted.

Let’s be friends. It’s rained a lot (literally) since then, and now Universal and TikTok have managed to understand each other again. UMG and TikTok announced “a new, multi-dimensional licensing agreement that will provide significant industry-leading benefits to UMG’s global family of artists, songwriters and labels, bringing their music back to a global community of more than a billion people,” UMG and TikTok announced in a new statement. TikTok”.

First, the agreement includes a commitment from UMG and TikTok to offer “UMG songwriters and artists better compensation, new promotional and engagement opportunities for their recordings and songs, and industry-leading protections for generative AI.”

More details. TikTok plans to continue investing resources into new artist-focused tools that allow them to “unleash their potential.” These include “Add to music app” (to add a song from TikTok to platforms like Spotify or Apple Music), improved analytics, and integrated ticketing features.

On the other hand, both companies will work together to “ensure that the development of artificial intelligence in the music industry protects human artistry and the economy going to these artists and composers.” In this sense, TikTok has committed to working with UMG to remove “unauthorized AI-generated music” from the platform and develop tools that improve “artist and songwriter attribution.”

Image | Xataka

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