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Meta’s long-term contractual partner, Universal Music Group, will also cover licensing rights for WhatsApp in the future. The companies announced joint plans.
Bremen/Santa Monica – The world-famous companies Universal Music Group (UMG) and Meta have been working together for years. Only through this collaboration have users of social media such as Instagram and Facebook for example, the possibility to include a large number of songs in their posts free of charge. It has now been announced that the contract has not only been extended, but also expanded for the future. For the first time, the news service WhatsApp included in the license rights.
As the companies announced in a press release in mid-August, the renewed agreement will expand commercial opportunities for UMG artists and songwriters “across Meta’s global network of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Horizon, Threads, and for the first time, WhatsApp.” WhatsApp had just announced an exciting privacy innovation in June.
Meta and Universal Music Group announce renewed agreement: What does this mean for WhatsApp?
There is not yet a suitable function that allows the use of music in WhatsApp. Unlike in Instagram stories, status photos and videos published on WhatsApp cannot yet be accompanied by music. It has not been confirmed whether a similar function is planned for WhatsApp, but it would be obvious. Especially since it is already a popular function on Instagram.
UMG and Meta have been working together for years. Now the WhatsApp app will also benefit from the joint contract. © Jakub Porzycki/Imago (left) // Zoonar.com/rafapress/Imago (right)
But a completely different plan for the future music catalog on WhatsApp is also possible. The announcement simply states that the new license agreement for WhatsApp “will open up new opportunities for UMG artists and songwriters in the future.” Details of the possibilities were not given. But there will definitely be more exciting innovations for the app in 2024: For example, will WhatsApp soon be usable without a phone number thanks to a new function?
Music functions on Facebook, WhatsApp and Co.: Measures against AI abuse announced
The companies also announced that they would take action against “unauthorized, TO generated content,” which they say could affect artists and songwriters. UMG has long been committed to stricter controls on the use of AI in the music industry. At the beginning of the year, they, together with other major labels and the US industry association RIAA, took two start-ups to court that use artificial intelligence to create songs.
The companies Suno and Udio are accused in the lawsuit of having illegally trained the AI software with copyrighted music. The plaintiffs see as evidence, among other things, that music produced by the start-ups can sound very similar to copyrighted songs by music stars.
