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Universal Music Group has signed a licensing agreement with Meta, which will bring its music to the social media messaging platform used by billions of people worldwide.
The partnership is part of UMG's efforts to improve the licensing agreement reached in 2017 with Meta (previously Facebook), which introduced the label's portfolio to the company's social media platforms, including Threads.
As part of the new arrangement, UMG artistes and songwriters will receive a portion of the advertising revenue generated by Meta creator posts with licensed music.
Michael Nash, UMG's Chief Digital Officer and Executive VP, in a statement, said: “We are delighted that Meta shares our artiste-centric vision for respecting human creativity and compensating artistes and songwriters fairly.
"We look forward to continuing to work together to address unauthorized AI-generated content that could affect artistes and songwriters so that UMG can continue to protect their rights both now and in the future.”
The partnership will also make UMG's collection the first cache of music available for content sharing and usage on WhatsApp.
This will allow Nigerian artists such as Adekunle Gold and Odumodublvck, who are signed or linked with UMG, to make their songs available on Whatsapp.
Universal Music, led by Lucian Grainge, has been at the forefront of combating unauthorised usage of its music, particularly through artificial intelligence that violates its artiste's rights.
