A new agreement that increases the amount of money that musicians can make on Meta’s platforms was revealed on Monday by Meta and Universal Music Group
The “extended global, multi-year agreement that will further evolve the creative and commercial opportunities” for UMG artists and Universal Music Publishing Group songwriters across Meta’s network of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Horizon, Threads, and, for the first time, WhatsApp, was confirmed by Tamara Hrivnak, VP Music and Content Business Development at Meta.
Newsng gathered that for the first time, Meta will license music for WhatsApp from UMG artists and Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) songwriters under the terms of the new, multi-year arrangement. Music is already licensed by Meta for its other platforms, including Instagram and Facebook.
According to them, the strengthened UMG-Meta collaboration will give artists using short-form videos on all platforms an additional way to make money.
The fact that they pledged to collaborate to solve “unauthorised AI-generated content that could affect artists and songwriters” is perhaps most significant.
“The new agreement reflects the two companies’ shared commitment to protecting human creators and artistry, including ensuring that artists and songwriters are compensated fairly,” the companies said in a statement.
According to Hrivnak, the relationship between Meta, UMG, and Universal Music Publishing Group will enable the companies to collaborate “in new ways on WhatsApp, and more.”
Today’s news comes two weeks after UMG specifically mentioned Meta in its calendar Q2 earnings results (for the three months ending in June).
“We are delighted that Meta shares our artist-centric vision for respecting human creativity and compensating artists and songwriters fairly,” UMG’s chief digital officer Michael Nash, said in the announcement.
“We look forward to continuing to work together to address unauthorized AI-generated content that could affect artists and songwriters so that UMG can continue to protect their rights both now and in the future.”
We earlier reported that UMG has announced its strategic alliance with the global streaming music provider, Spotify.
