Universal Music Group (UMG) announced a new deal with Meta, which will enhance creative and commercial opportunities for UMG artists and Universal Music Publishing Group songwriters across Meta’s global platforms. These platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Horizon, Threads, and, for the first time, and WhatsApp.
Users can now share licensed music from UMG within WhatsApp. UMG highlighted that this partnership with Meta to license music for WhatsApp creates “new value for UMG artists and songwriters moving forward.”
Additionally, UMG and Meta plan to collaborate on addressing unauthorized AI-generated content that could impact artists and songwriters.
This announcement comes two weeks after UMG mentioned Meta in its Q2 earnings report, covering the three months ending in June. Despite UMG’s overall revenues increasing by 9.6% year-over-year, the company reported a 3.9% decline in ad-funded streaming revenues. UMG’s CFO, Boyd Muir, explained that part of this decline was due to Meta’s decision in May to stop licensing premium videos for Facebook from UMG, as these videos were “less popular with Facebook’s user base than other music products.”
However, UMG and Meta have now finalized a “multifaceted renewal,” expanding monetization opportunities for UMG artists and songwriters through short-form videos and other areas of music content. In a joint statement, the companies emphasized their continued innovation and collaboration in the music space.
In summary, while UMG faced some revenue challenges due to Meta’s decision to halt licensing premium videos on Facebook, the new agreement has opened up new revenue streams for UMG, particularly in the short-form video and WhatsApp licensing spaces.
UMG’s new agreement with Meta builds on the “strategic framework” established with their 2017 “landmark agreement,” which made UMG the first major music company to license its catalogs across Facebook’s platforms. UMG noted that Facebook played a pioneering role as music’s first fully licensed partner among major social media platforms.
This partnership follows a 2022 deal in which UMG and Meta expanded revenue-sharing and enhanced engagement with UMG’s catalog. That agreement included the use of UMG’s music within Meta’s user-generated content (UGC) video payout model, with Meta sharing a portion of advertising revenue with music rights holders for certain user-generated video content on Facebook that is 60 seconds or longer.
