Universal Music renews with TikTok: Umg songs return to the platform

Maybe it's all about the Taylor Swift effect. Maybe not, but whichever way you want to put it, Universal Music Group and TikTok have said they have reached a new licensing agreement that will lead to the full restoration of major's songs and catalogues on the social media platform.

TikTok had started toremove Universal Music content from its app after their previous deal had expired in January and the two parties had failed to reach an agreement on royalty payments to rights holders, protection from artificial intelligence and online security for TikTok users.

The short video app is a valuable marketing tool for the music industry. According to Midia Research, TikTok is where 16-19 year olds most often discover music, ahead of YouTube and real streaming platforms such as Spotify.

However, Universal Music had claimed that its artists and songwriters were underpaid by the Chinese platform. Until last year, TikTok accounted for one per cent of the multinational record company's annual revenue, or around USD 110 million in 2023. According to Midia, however, YouTube paid something like $1.8 billion for user-generated content in the 12 months ending June 2022.

The takedown, however, had exceptions: Taylor Swift, among Universal Music's biggest artists reasoning in terms of volume, for instance got a selection of her songs back on TikTok while promoting her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department . All by virtue of Swift's greater bargaining power, compared to less illustrious colleagues. In recent weeks, when licensing negotiations resumed, Ai has remained an important battleground. Universal has argued that TikTok is 'inundated with AI-generated recordings, including songs that users create with the help of tools provided by the social network itself'.