Universal Music Group and TikTok signed a new multi-year global licensing agreement that keeps artists including Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Sabrina Carpenter, and Noah Kahan on the platform, though the companies did not disclose financial terms or the exact length of the deal. The agreement builds on a partnership the companies began in 2024 (after a royalties dispute that prompted UMG to pull its music from TikTok for three months) and incorporates expanded marketing and advertising campaigns plus access to e-commerce and other artist-centric tools for selling merchandise and promoting tours. The deal also includes AI protections to promote human artistry, with TikTok and UMG working to remove unauthorized AI-generated music from the platform, and comes shortly after a separate UMG-Spotify agreement that will let fans create AI-generated remixes and covers of UMG music as a paid add-on.
