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Meta META+0.24% and Universal Music Group on Monday announced a new deal that expands money-making opportunities for artists on Meta’s platforms.
Under the new, multi-year agreement, Meta will license music from UMG artists and Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) songwriters for Whatsapp for the first time. Meta already licenses music for its other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
The bolstered UMG-Meta partnership will add another monetization opportunity for artists across all platforms with short-form video, they said. Perhaps most importantly, they said they will work together to address “unauthorized AI-generated content that could affect artists and songwriters.”
“The new agreement reflects the two companies’ shared commitment to protecting human creators and artistry, including ensuring that artists and songwriters are compensated fairly,” the companies said in a statement Monday.
UMG is the world’s largest music company and represents artists such as Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Elton John, and Drake. The announcement follows another UMG-social media deal earlier this year — the company in May said it struck a licensing agreement with TikTok after months of tension between the two.
Meta and UMG inked their initial agreement in 2017, back when Meta was still Facebook. The deal made UMG the first big music company to license its music to Facebook’s social media platforms.
“We are delighted that Meta shares our artist-centric vision for respecting human creativity and compensating artists and songwriters fairly,” UMG’s chief digital officer Michael Nash, said in the announcement. “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’s VP of music and content business development, Tamara Hrivnak, said “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.”