Universal Music Group and TikTok's Deal Secures Artist Royalties and AI Protections
Key takeaways
- Universal Music Group and Tik Tok have signed an agreement that will keep artists including Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Sabrina Carpenter and Noah Kahan playing on the platform for years to come.
- TikTok creators saw messages like this in 2024 if they had used music from Universal Music Group artists durign a royalties dispute between the companies.
- The Spotify feature won't be part of the service by default: Subscribers will have to pay extra, even if they're on Spotify Premium, to use those features.
Universal Music Group and Tik Tok have signed an agreement that will keep artists including Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Sabrina Carpenter and Noah Kahan playing on the platform for years to come.
The announcement didn't disclose financial terms or even how long the agreement will last ("multi-year" was the phrasing), but it appears the companies have permanently put behind them a royalties dust-up from 2024 that at one point prompted UMG to pull its music from Tik Tok for three months.
UMG said in its announcement that the new agreement builds on a partnership it began with TikTok in 2024 and incorporates "expanded marketing and advertising campaigns, as well as access to e-commerce and other artist-centric tools." Presumably, this means UMG artists will have additional features available to sell merchandise and promote their music tours or album drops on TikTok.