Key Takeaways
- UMG and TikTok settle their dispute with a new agreement.
- They’ll remove AI-generated music and explore new ways to make money.
- The “Add to Music App” feature will help artists earn more and grow their fanbase.
Content creators rejoice! Universal Music Group (UMG) announced in a press release on May 2 that the music label has come to terms on a contract with social media app TikTok.
After a months-long debate over a licensing contract, UMG said it was parting ways with TikTok in February. The massive record label, whose roster of artists includes Taylor Swift, Drake and Billie Eilish, to name a few, pulled its artists’ music off of the social media platform.
TikTok users are getting creative after losing UMG music like Taylor Swift
Here’s how creators and artists are reacting to UMG’s licensing termination with TikTok, and what it means for the app.
When UMG began renegotiating its contract with TikTok at the end of last year, the record label demanded that the music-centric app pay its artists more money per use. UMG also requested that the app remove any music produced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) claiming to be one of its artists.
TikTok allegedly wouldn’t budge on the amount it would pay artists, citing that the app gives artists a free platform to advertise music.
TikTok claimed that UMG put “their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.” After pulling over three million songs off the platform, thousands of TikTok users were left with videos of them dancing with no soundtrack in the background.
Waving the white flag
TikTok will make its app more artist friendly
However, it now seems that the giant record label and popular social media app have reached a truce.
TikTok has agreed to help make its app more artist friendly and will work with the company to ‘realize new monetization opportunities’…
In a press release put out by UMG on Thursday morning, the label announced that TikTok has agreed to help make its app more artist friendly and will work with the company to “realize new monetization opportunities” through the app’s ecommerce platform. The press release also stated that TikTok agreed to help potential AI developments will protect human artistry by removing any AI-generated music of UMG artists.
“We look forward to working together to forge a path that creates deeper connections between artists, creators, and fans,” said Ole Obermann, TikTok’s Global Head of Music Business Development, in the press release.
“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.”
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Another way TikTok plans to help artists is by allowing users to add songs to their streaming app of choice through an “Add to Music App” feature. The release states that this will help enhance artists’ “financially and in building their global fan bases using TikTok’s scale and engaged community, while strengthening online safety protection for artists and their fans.”
This announcement comes just a couple of weeks after Taylor Swift, one of Universal Music Group’s top artists, announced that she would be putting her music back on TikTok, despite the fact that UMG pulled its artists off the platform.
Although TikTok’s future in the US seems uncertain, TikTokers can happily create videos in the meantime with their favorite Drake song playing in the background.
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