Universal Music Group (UMG) and TikTok have just signed a new cooperation agreement, ensuring that the music of many famous artists will continue to appear on this short video platform for many years to come.
UMG's artist list includes many big names such as Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Sabrina Carpenter and Noah Kahan.
The two companies did not disclose the financial value or specific terms of the agreement. However, this move shows that the copyright dispute that broke out in 2024 has almost been completely resolved.
At that time, UMG once withdrew all of its music from TikTok for about three months due to disagreements related to copyright fees and the use of artificial intelligence.
According to an announcement from UMG, the new agreement expands cooperation between the two sides through advertising, marketing and e-commerce campaigns for artists. This means that UMG singers and musicians will have more tools to sell goods, promote albums or live tours on TikTok.
The most notable point in this agreement is the terms related to artificial intelligence (AI). UMG said that TikTok will coordinate to limit the appearance of illegal AI music on the platform, while improving the mechanism for recording authors and musicians to protect the rights of creators.
According to UMG, the new measures will help "promote human artistry" and ensure that revenue from the platform is allocated more effectively to artists.
The cooperation move with TikTok took place just days after UMG reached another agreement with Spotify, but in a completely different direction on AI.
Spotify is developing a tool that allows users to create covers and remixes of UMG songs using artificial intelligence.
However, this feature will not be integrated by default. Users must pay an additional fee, even if they have registered for Spotify Premium, to use the above AI tools.
Currently, Spotify has not announced the official launch date of this AI music creation feature.
In the past time, UMG has continuously expanded cooperation related to AI with many other technology and music companies such as Nvidia, Splice and Udio.
The new agreement shows that the music industry is seeking to balance between exploiting the potential of AI and protecting copyright rights for artists in the digital content era.
