Taylor Swift attends the 66th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Enviornment on February 04, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Neilson Barnard | Getty Pictures
Common Music Group, the report label for high music artists together with Taylor Swift, 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.
As of Thursday morning, a number of songs from Taylor Swift, together with tracks from the pop star’s new album The Tortured Poets Division, have been reinstated to the platform, CNBC verified.
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 grew to become unavailable on TikTok, which is owned by Chinese language web large ByteDance.
UMG accused TikTok of bullying and intimidation in its contract negotiations and alleged that TikTok proposed paying its artists and songwriters “at a price 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 AI-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” with regards to generative AI.
The contemporary settlement, “focuses on the worth of music, the primacy of human artistry and the welfare of the inventive neighborhood,” mentioned Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO of UMG.
“We stay 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 are sufficiently paid for his or her materials.
TikTok may also work with UMG to take away unauthorized AI-generated music from its platform, as effectively implement instruments to enhance artist and songwriter attribution.
