Artists from Universal Music Group (UMG), including Taylor Swift, Drake, Adele, Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish, are set to return to TikTok following a new licensing agreement that resolves a three-month dispute. Announced Wednesday, May 1, the deal addresses past concerns over artist compensation, the use of AI and user safety on TikTok.
This agreement specifically tackles issues with generative AI by ensuring future AI developments within the music industry will protect artists’ and songwriters’ creative rights and financial earnings.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew emphasized the platform’s commitment to drive value and promote UMG’s talent, including removing unauthorized AI-generated content and enhancing attribution for artists and songwriters. The deal also aims to create a safer online community by preventing fake merchandise and ticket sales scams.
Additionally, the agreement introduces new monetization avenues and global promotional campaigns for UMG artists, aiming to leverage TikTok’s vast user base for greater artist visibility and engagement.
TikTok currently outpaces YouTube as the most common music discovery source for teens in the U.S.
However, the future of TikTok in the U.S. remains uncertain. Recent legislation requires TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell to a U.S. owner within a year or shut down, posing potential challenges to such agreements.
TikTok maintains it has not and will never share U.S. user data with the Chinese government.
