(Credit: Valerie Macon/Contributor/Getty Images)
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.