After announcing deals with Sony Music in November and Warner Music Group in December. The ByteDance-owned video app revealed on Feb. 8 that it has struck an “expanded” global licensing agreement with Universal Music Group. TikTok now has fresh worldwide licensing deals in place with all three major record companies.
Coincidentally, the timing of the announcement comes just days after UMG pulled its catalog from TikTok’s biggest rival, Triller. With Universal accusing that platform of withholding payments to UMG artists.
“We are excited to enter this new era with UMG and UMPG to continue supporting artists and songwriters, by working together to help reach music fans on TikTok,” said Ole Obermann, Global Head of Music for TikTok.
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The deal covers recorded music from artists at UMG’s labels and songwriters with Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG). TikTok and UMG have additionally pledged “to experiment with exciting new features”. As a result, users of the video-sharing social networking app will now be able to incorporate clips from UMG’s full catalog of music.
TikTok published its first ever US Music report in December. In which it revealed that over 70 artists that broke on the platform in the past 12 months went on to sign major label deals.