February 11, 2021

TikTok now has fresh worldwide licensing deals in place with all three major record companies.

After announcing deals with Sony Music in November and Warner Music Group in December, the ByteDance-owned video app revealed that it has struck an “expanded” global licensing agreement with Universal Music Group.

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.

According to a statement, the new global agreement between UMG and TikTok “delivers equitable compensation for recording artists and songwriters and significantly expands and enhances the companies’ existing relationship”.

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, TikTok users will now be able to incorporate clips from UMG’s full catalog of music.

“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.”

OBERMANN, TIKTOK

Marc Cimino, Chief Operating Officer of UMPG, said: “This alliance sets an industrywide example of social media companies acknowledging, respecting and compensating the music creators whose songs are instrumental to their platforms. We appreciate Tik Tok’s partnership and look forward to working together to provide support and opportunities to our songwriters.”

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.

The platform also reported that over 176 different songs surpassed 1 billion video views as TikTok sounds in 2020.