That must be interesting.

Universal Music Group today announced it amended its existing music licensing agreement with Meta, under which Meta would be able to utilize UMG's artists' music in more ways across Meta's apps.

Meta signed an industry-first music licensing agreement with UMG back in 2017, which has allowed Meta to build a range of music-aligned products, such as music stickers, that have proved popular in apps.

And now, it's looking to build new music experiences in its apps.

According to UMG:

"Meta and Universal Music Group (UMG) today announced an expanded global, multi-year agreement that will further evolve the creative and commercial opportunities for UMG artists and Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) songwriters across Meta's global network of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Horizon, Threads and, for the first time, WhatsApp. The new agreement reflects the two companies' shared commitment to protecting human creators and artistry, including ensuring that artists and songwriters are compensated fairly."

A new deal component, UMG says, is new rules regarding unauthorized AI-generated work which may impact artists and songwriters.

We are pleased that Meta shares our artist-centric approach to respecting human creativity and fairly compensating artists and songwriters. We also look forward to continuing work with Meta on how to address unauthorized AI-generated content that may affect artists and songwriters and, therefore, continue to protect their rights both now and in the future.

Naturally enough, this has become the focus of owners and managers of IP as new tools make new ways to essentially replicate artists' work possible. And if publishers do nothing to stop it, there's a possibility that people will profit off of their clients' likeness.

I suspect that this explains why we have seen platforms push the brakes on functions that enable the creation of AI deepfakes of musicians. Last year, an AI-generated song that utilized the voices of Drake and The Weeknd briefly trended on TikTok and other apps, before it was steadily phased out due to copyright challenges.
This kind of example would come top of mind for record labels in the renegotiation of such services, and making sure that social apps do not build tools that could help their users in creating their variants in this manner.

But there's another interest element in this new UMG deal as well.

As Tamara Hrivnak, VP Music and Content Business Development at Meta, says

"This alliance expands on the understanding that music can tie us together and make listeners, creators, and composers closer to each other, not only through such well-established channels as Instagram and Facebook, but in new ways through WhatsApp and more."

New options for streaming music on WhatsApp. That's a good clue.

It's particularly the case in the U.S., and WhatsApp has surged in interest of late, so Meta may now look to add more functionality within the application to build more discovery and engagement elements in it.
 
This probably will relate to music-type stickers within chats, so you can talk about the latest tracks or dedicated channels with new tools for musicians.

Whether it's a proposed solution for the idea of an abusive monopoly in everybody's concept, or simply because they really have no other choice, then it will be interesting to see what Meta comes up with and what this may mean for future music promotions and engagement.

The new terms also include Meta's Horizon VR experience, according to UMG, that could also make way for new music experiences in virtual worlds.

This is also another important step in materializing Meta's music ambitions, as it is a smart move for Meta to consolidate this partnership after UMG has also had a battle with TikTok earlier this year over their claim of music rights.