Meta and Universal Music Group Forge Groundbreaking AI-Inclusive Licensing Deal

Universal Music inks major licensing deal expansion with Meta to include WhatsApp

Universal Music Group has signed a major expansion of its licensing deal with social media giant Meta, parent of Facebook and Instagram, which for the first time will allow users to share licensed tunes from the label's artists on messaging service WhatsApp. The companies Monday said the renewed deal will also boost commercial opportunities for Universal Music Group performers and songwriters on platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Horizon and Threads. "This partnership builds on the recognition that music can help connect us and bring fans, artists, and songwriters closer together, not only on established platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, but also in new ways on WhatsApp, and more," said Tamara Hrivnak, Meta's vice president of music and content business development, in a statement. Universal Music first licensed songs to Facebook in 2017 in a landmark pact that allowed users to share videos containing music on the social media platform. Since then, music has become only more important on social media, powering viral posts on apps such as Instagram and TikTok. "Since our landmark 2017 agreement, Meta has consistently demonstrated its commitment to artists and songwriters by helping to amplify the importance music holds across its global network of engaged communities and platforms, creating new opportunities and applications where music amplifies and leads engagement and conversations," said Michael Nash, chief digital officer and executive vice president of Universal Music Group in a statement. While UMG was able to reach an agreement with Meta, its negotiations with TikTok were not as smooth. In January, the two sides had a fierce public dispute, with UMG alleging TikTok was not paying "fair value for the music" and TikTok accusing UMG of putting "their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters." During the disagreement, songs from popular UMG artists including Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo vanished from TikTok. The companies eventually resolved their issues, announcing a deal in May. Like other entertainment businesses, music companies have publicly said they are seeking protections for their artists from unauthorized AI, heightened by the proliferation of deep fakes. UMG said it will continue to work with Meta on addressing this content, which has proliferated on social media sites. "We look forward to continuing to work together to address unauthorized AI-generated content that could affect artists and songwriters, so that UMG can continue to protect their rights both now and in the future," Nash said. ______

New Meta Licensing Deal Lets People Use UMG Songs on Threads, WhatsApp

Meta and Universal Music Group (UMG) have extended their music licensing deal. The renewed deal will let people on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Horizon, Threads, and -- for the first time -- WhatsApp use songs from UMG artists and Universal Music Publishing Group (UPMG) songwriters in their content. Financial terms of the multi-year agreement weren't disclosed. However, the two companies have said they will continue to work together to tackle unauthorized AI-generated content and ensure that "artists and songwriters are compensated fairly," especially for short-form videos. In 2017, UMG became the first music label to license its music across platforms on Meta (then Facebook). Since then, "Meta has consistently demonstrated its commitment to artists and songwriters by helping to amplify the importance music holds across its global network of engaged communities and platforms, creating new opportunities and applications where music amplifies and leads engagement and conversations," says Michael Nash, Universal Music's Chief Digital Officer & EVP. This comes after a very public spat between UMG and TikTok that saw the label's music pulled from the video app for several months. At the time, UMG said it was at odds with TikTok on three issues: "appropriate compensation" for artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from AI, and the online safety of TikTok's users. UMG alleged that TikTok is trying to pay less than other large social networks for music rights and is actively encouraging AI recordings and tools. The two reached a deal in May. YouTube is also reportedly looking to sign deals with labels like UMG, Warner, and Sony that would let it use specific artists' catalogs to train its AI.

Universal Music Group and Meta announce expanded license agreement covering AI, music revenue and more - SiliconANGLE

Universal Music Group and Meta announce expanded license agreement covering AI, music revenue and more Universal Music Group and Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. signed an expanded, global, multi-year agreement today that will bring more opportunities for monetization to UMG artists and songwriters across Meta's social media platforms. Although the terms of the deal were not disclosed in today's announcement, the two companies said that the impetus behind the expanded agreement would focus on "ensuring that artists and songwriters are compensated fairly" and "protecting human creators and artistry" in an era where artificial intelligence is used to recreate music. As part of the partnership, the companies said they would address how unauthorized AI-generated content affects artists. The new agreement expands on an original deal in 2017 where UMG became the first major music company to license its music catalog content across Facebook's social media platform. Meta partnered with the record label group instead of rolling out a music-sharing service similar to Apple Inc.'s iTunes platform. Music sharing and streaming became available to users from UMG's catalog across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads and the virtual reality app Horizon. With the new agreement, users of the encrypted messaging app WhatsApp will now be able to share UMG-copyrighted music. "Since our landmark 2017 agreement, Meta has consistently demonstrated its commitment to artists and songwriters by helping to amplify the importance music holds across its global network of engaged communities and platforms," said Michael Nash, chief digital officer and executive vice president of Universal Music Group. "We look forward to continuing to work together to address unauthorized AI-generated content that could affect artists and songwriters so that UMG can continue to protect their rights both now and in the future." UMG has argued that copyright infringement and AI-generated content directly affect the work of musical artists and songwriters. In October, the record label group filed suit against Anthropic PBC, the developer of the ChatGPT rival chatbot Claude, for the alleged widespread scraping of its clients' song lyrics to train its AI models. The lawsuit marked the first major lawsuit by the music industry against an AI developer and UMG sought $75 million in damages. It was just the beginning, in June this year, three other major record labels, represented by the Recording Industry Association of America, filed suit against Suno Inc. and Uncharted Labs, better known as Udio. In that suit, the labels alleged that the two companies carried out widespread infringement of copyrighted sound recordings at scale. In May this year, UMG signed a new deal with ByteDance Ltd.-owned TikTok after the Chinese social media platform didn't renew over a disagreement regarding royalties payments. Music monetization on social media is becoming a major source of revenue for music labels. Similarly, TikTok is experimenting with an "AI Song" feature that allows users to create songs based on prompts. By partnering early with social media platforms developing generative AI music tools and licensing UMG music for these features, Universal Music Group could ensure fair compensation for its artists as these technologies become widespread.

Meta, Universal Music Group Take Aim at AI Content in Expanded Licensing Deal

Since the Meta-UMG partnership was formed in 2017, it has amplified artists and their music on platforms including virtual reality. Meta Platforms (META) and Universal Music Group (UMGNF) announced a multi-year deal designed to create business opportunities for artists and songwriters on Facebook, Instagram and other Meta platforms including WhatsApp. Notably, the expanded partnership between the companies includes fighting the unauthorized use of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content. "We are delighted that Meta shares our artist-centric vision for respecting human creativity and compensating artists and songwriters fairly," UMG Chief Digital Officer Michael Nash said. "We look forward to continuing to work together to address unauthorized AI-generated content that could affect artists and songwriters, so that UMG can continue to protect their rights both now and in the future." Meta and UMG first partnered in 2017, when a landmark agreement made UMG the first major music company to license its music catalog across Meta (then known as Facebook) platforms. The partnership has seen artists explore "new emergent channels," including virtual reality environments through Meta Quest devices. Now, for the first time, the expansion of the deal includes music licensing on WhatsApp.

Meta and Universal Music strike deal around AI and monetisation

Universal Music has had a partnership with Meta and its family of apps dating back to 2017. Meta and Universal Music Group (UMG) have struck a deal that will see the Facebook parent crack down on unauthorised AI-generated content that violates the copyright of the group's musicians. The new agreement announced today (12 August) will also expand monetisation opportunities for UMG artists and songwriters across Meta family apps such as Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Messenger, Horizon and even WhatsApp. UMG said the agreement aims to protect human creators and artistry, including ensuring that artists and songwriters are "compensated fairly". "This partnership builds on the recognition that music can help connect us and bring fans, artists and songwriters closer together, not only on established platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, but also in new ways on WhatsApp, and more," said Tamara Hrivnak, VP of music and content business development at Meta. Earlier this year, UMG was in a very public spat with TikTok over disagreements around renewing a licensing deal. TikTok published a castigating open letter against the platform in January, accusing it of trying to build a music-based business without paying "fair value" for the music and for sponsoring the "replacement" of artists by AI. The group went so far as to call out TikTok for "intimidation" and "bullying" in deal renewal talks. By the end of February, TikTok began removing songs published by UMG artists as the disagreement intensified. By May, the two announced a new licensing agreement that saw music from many famous and rising music artists back on the app. As part of the new agreement, TikTok and UMG said they would work together to utilise the app's growing e-commerce capabilities to realise new monetising opportunities for artists globally. UMG has had a partnership with Meta and its family of apps dating back to 2017. "Meta has consistently demonstrated its commitment to artists and songwriters by helping to amplify the importance music holds across its global network of engaged communities and platforms, creating new opportunities and applications where music amplifies and leads engagement and conversations," said Michael Nash, chief digital officer at UMG. "We are delighted that Meta shares our artist-centric vision for respecting human creativity and compensating artists and songwriters fairly. We look forward to continuing to work together to address unauthorized AI-generated content that could affect artists and songwriters, so that UMG can continue to protect their rights both now and in the future." Find out how emerging tech trends are transforming tomorrow with our new podcast, Future Human: The Series. Listen now on Spotify, on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.

Meta, Universal Music Group Extend Licensing Deal To Include WhatsApp, Covering Artists Like Taylor Swift, Coldplay - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), Sony Gr (NYSE:SONY)

Its deal with Meta extends the possibility for users to add songs from UMG's catalog in their content creation. A new agreement between Meta Platforms Inc META and Universal Music Group is reconfirming the substantial role of social media in increasing the revenue stream of major artists like Taylor Swift, Coldplay and Bob Dylan. The two companies announced the multiyear agreement on Monday, which extends Meta's rights to use UMG artists across its platform range, including user-generated content in Facebook and Instagram, as well as software on its virtual reality platform Meta Quest. The agreement for the first time includes Whatsapp as a platform, where Meta is now allowed to license UMG content. Along with Swift, Coldplay and Bob Dylan, UMG represents artists such as Drake, Billie Eilish, Elton John, Adele, U2, Harry Styles and Sting. In 2017, UMG became the first major music company to license its content to Meta, then called Facebook. The deal opened the floodgates to a cascade of user-generated content that was now allowed to use artist tracks as background music. In 2018, Warner Music Group Corp WMG and Sony Music Group, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corp SONY signed similar deals that generated new income for artists and ended years of legal battles between record labels and social media companies over copyright infringement. A decision by Meta last year to shut down its Premium Music Videos platform has had a strong impact on the balance sheets of major record labels. The decision will cost Warner Music Group at least $10 million per quarter, according to its CFO, Music Business reports. Read also: Google, Meta Accused Of Secretly Targeting Instagram Ads To Teens On YouTube, Violating Google's Own Rules: Report AI, A Growing Concern For Record Labels: The deal between Meta and UMG comes on the heels of a dispute between the record label and TikTok, which is a direct competitor for Meta in many of its products. In their press release, the two companies emphasized that they'll continue working together to address "unauthorized AI-generated content that could affect artists and songwriters." Back in March, UMG pulled its 4 million-song catalog from TikTok, citing concerns over the latter's handling of music copyrights in the training of artificial intelligence models. The label claimed that TikTok had not given any assurances that it wouldn't use UMG songs to train its AI. The dispute got resolved in May, when the two companies reached a new agreement which clarified that "TikTok and UMG 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," as a press release stated. 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. Earlier this year, a group of musical artists including Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder, Nicki Minaj, Elvis Costello, Norah Jones and Kathy Perry signed an open letter demanding AI developers stop the use of "predatory" AI technology liable to "undermine or replace the human artistry of songwriters and artists." The artists stated that the unrestricted use of their music to train AI systems has the potential to "violate creators' rights, and destroy the music ecosystem." In June, TikTok announced the creation of a new internal team dedicated to acquiring music rights. Such a move could free the company to train AI models on its own music, potentially offering users AI-generated music based on their own preferences, eliminating record labels from the equation. Now Read: TikTok Axes Reward System After EU Investigation Reveals App Encourages Excessive Screen Time (UPDATED) Photo: Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs