Meta and Universal Music Group Forge New Global Partnership to Navigate AI Challenges in Music Industry

Both Meta and Universal Music Group (UMG) have revealed a significant expansion of their licensing agreement, establishing a new global multi-year partnership this Monday. This updated agreement opens up fresh monetisation avenues for the music label, artists, and songwriters while tackling the misuse of AI-generated content. The focus here is on the application of artificial intelligence to create music or songs that imitate the style or voice of a specific artist or songwriter. Moreover, it also covers licensing music for WhatsApp, the messaging platform owned by Meta.

The emergence of AI-generated music that replicates existing artists has become a prominent concern within the music sector. A notable incident occurred in 2023 when a track titled ‘Heart on My Sleeve’ was distributed across several streaming services. Although the track claimed to feature vocals from Drake and the Weeknd, it was entirely produced by AI. Despite its classification as a deepfake—an AI-generated work mimicking someone else's likeness without approval—the song achieved significant popularity and even garnered a Grammy submission.

Such incidents have propelled the music industry to demand enhancements in the regulatory approaches toward artificial intelligence from governments. Furthermore, several leading labels have taken legal action against AI companies that purportedly employ copyrighted materials for training large language models.

In light of the expanded licensing agreement, Meta and UMG have pledged to collaborate in addressing the unauthorized creation of AI-generated content to safeguard the rights of human artists and songwriters. However, further specifics regarding the strategies the companies intend to employ to reduce the threat of music impersonations remain undisclosed.

This new agreement marks a pivotal moment, as it represents the first collaboration between UMG and Meta to license music specifically for WhatsApp. This partnership could potentially introduce new features for the instant messaging platform, allowing users to interact with copyrighted songs in innovative ways. While this remains speculative, it may also set the stage for a similar rollout of Reels on WhatsApp, akin to its introduction on Facebook.

In addition to WhatsApp, the agreement extends the licensing of UMG music to all other Meta platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Horizon, which is designed for mixed-reality experiences. It is important to note that the original deal between the two companies was established in 2017, and this latest agreement broadens their collaboration in both duration and scope.