Taylor Swift attends the 66th Grammy Awards at Crypto.com Area in Los Angeles on Feb. 4, 2024.
Neilson Barnard | Getty Photographs
Common Music Group, the file label for high music artists together with Taylor Swift and Drake, struck a brand new licensing settlement with TikTok, placing an finish to a spat between the 2 corporations.
In an announcement Thursday, UMG mentioned the licensing deal would result in the return of its artists’ music to TikTok.
Earlier this 12 months, TikTok pulled songs from artists signed to UMG after the 2 sides didn’t agree on a brand new deal over content material licensing, sparking a public spat.
Music by artists together with Swift and Drake turned unavailable on TikTok, which is owned by Chinese language web big ByteDance. Swift had her music restored on the platform on April 12.
UMG accused TikTok of bullying and intimidation in its contract negotiations and alleged that TikTok proposed paying its artists and songwriters “at a charge that’s a fraction of the speed that equally located main social platforms pay.”
On the coronary heart of the spat was the competition that TikTok allowed its platform to undermine artists’ mental property with unauthorized synthetic intelligence-generated songs. UMG claimed the social media platform was “flooded with AI-generated recordings.”
UMG and TikTok’s new deal goals to enhance remuneration for songwriters and artists, present promotional alternatives for his or her recordings and introduce “industry-leading protections” in relation to generative AI.
The recent settlement “focuses on the worth of music, the primacy of human artistry and the welfare of the artistic group,” mentioned Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO of UMG.
“We sit up for collaborating with the crew at TikTok to additional the pursuits of our artists and songwriters and drive innovation in fan engagement whereas advancing social music monetization.”
Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s CEO, mentioned the platform is “dedicated to working collectively to drive worth, discovery and promotion for all of UMG’s wonderful artists and songwriters.”
TikTok and UMG mentioned they might work to make sure AI improvement within the music {industry} protects artists and that they’re sufficiently paid for his or her materials.
TikTok may even work with UMG to take away unauthorized AI-generated music from its platform, as properly implement instruments to enhance artist and songwriter attribution.
Correction: The headline and textual content of this story have been amended to say that Taylor Swift’s music was restored on TikTok on April 12.