Here’s how Spotify and Universal Music team up against TikTok
TikTok has muted Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Ariana Grande and all other Universal Music artists but the label has a plan with Spotify. All the details
In defiance of TikTok, whose future is increasingly in the balance in the United States, the record label Universal Music has signed an agreement with Spotify, after the social platform removed its artists' songs due to a dispute that put an end to the agreement between the two .
Here's what they plan to do.
THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN UNIVERSAL MUSIC AND SPOTIFY
Universal Music and Spotify have announced a partnership “to make the record label's artists go viral.” In practice, Universal singers – including Taylor Swift, Drake, Harry Styles, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd – will be able to share teasers of upcoming songs on Spotify and offer a pre-save option for new releases.
The news caused the shares of the music platform to rise by just over 2% yesterday afternoon and those of the label by 2.58%.
To then make "'social music' experiences deeper", as stated by the two parties, (and compensate for the breakup with TikTok), the agreement also includes a new agreement with Universal Music Publishing Group which allows Spotify US to share artists' music videos.
The intention is to increase artists' engagement with listeners, particularly regarding "new music and artist-focused initiatives," said Lucian Grainge, Universal's president and CEO.
THE RUPTURE BETWEEN UNIVERSAL MUSIC AND TIKTOK
Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek said the expanded partnership between the music streaming platform and Universal will allow artists to “express themselves authentically, effectively promote their work and better monetize their art.”
“Monetize”, key word. The end of the relationship between the label and TikTok is the result of the non-renewal of the licensing contract which expired on January 31st. In fact, the two were unable to reach an agreement because, according to Universal, the Chinese platform with over 1 billion active monthly users around the world did not offer adequate compensation for artists and authors, protecting artists from the harmful effects of intelligence artificial and online user safety.
“With regards to the issue of compensation for artists and authors,” the statement reads, “TikTok has proposed paying our artists and authors at a rate that is a fraction of that paid by similarly positioned major social platforms.”
Additionally, for the label, TikTok only accounts for about 1% of total revenue.
EARTHQUAKE TIKTOK
The point, however, as Quartz notes , is that “TikTok has altered the dynamics of the music industry, from how people discover new music to how songs (and the artists behind them) become popular.”
Starting with the pandemic and then in the years that followed, the platform demonstrated how short-form videos could make songs and artists explode overnight, thanks largely to fan interactions and viral social media trends. And the labels have noticed.
But TikTok doesn't seem to despair over the breakup with Universal. Last May it struck deals with dozens of musicians to distribute their music through a music marketing and distribution platform founded by TikTok called SoundOn, while in July it signed a deal with Warner Music Group to create new revenue and marketing for artists and authors of the label on the platform.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/ecco-come-spotify-e-universal-music-si-alleano-contro-tiktok/ on Fri, 29 Mar 2024 15:08:29 +0000.