With the renewal of the contract, songs by artists like Taylor Swift will return to the platform.
Ending this rivalry that had lasted for a few months, Universal Music and TikTok finally concluded a new agreement, returning music from artists such as Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and Drake to the ByteDance video platform.
The old contract between the companies ended in February, triggering a wave of hits being removed from the social network.
What do you need to know:
- Universal Music Group (UMG) announced at the end of January that, after failing to reach a licensing agreement with TikTok, the partnership would not be renewed this year;
- The conflict occurred due to disagreements over the payment of royalties;
- This disagreement led to the removal of a catalog of around 4 million sounds from the Chinese social network;
- This new agreement ends the discussions and also adds a clause protecting artists against the rise of generative AI;
- The contract also includes “new monetization opportunities” arising from TikTok’s growing e-commerce capabilities;
- In a statement, the companies said they are working to return the removed songs to the platform as quickly as possible.
At TikTok and UMG, they will work together to ensure that the development of AI across the music industry protects human art and the economy that flows to these artists and songwriters. TikTok is 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.
Universal Music in a statement.
These disagreements that prolonged the renewal of the agreement between the companies were based on: while the record company wanted more adequate compensation for artists and songwriters, TikTok offered a “fraction of the fee” that the main social platforms in a similar situation pay, according to UMG in season.
TikTok represents about 1% of UMG’s total revenue.
We are delighted to welcome UMG and UMPG back to TikTok. We are working quickly to return artists to the platform.
Ole Obermann, global head of music business development at TikTok.
Curiosity:
In mid-2018, TikTok reached the mark of 1 billion active users. And continuing to grow, in November 2019, the application reached 1.5 billion downloads on the App Store and Google Play Store. In April 2020, it had already surpassed 1 billion installations considering only the Google Play Store, the download store for Android devices.
And all this success occurred upwards during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic, in the same way as the growth of ByteDance and Zhang Yiming’s fortune. According to Forbes, he had a net worth of US$35.8 billion at that time.
He, Zhang Yiming, then became recognized not only for his wealth and being one of the richest men in the world, but also for his role as a successful businessman, achieving excellent results in his projects .
Additionally, Zhang Yiming made the 2013 Forbes China 30 Under 30 list , which recognizes the country’s young entrepreneurs. In 2018, he was included in Fortune magazine’s 40 Under 40 list, which names the most influential young leaders of the year.
Source: olhardigital e Google