Meta and Universal Music Group (UMG) on Monday announced an expanded multi-year music licensing agreement that will allow users to share songs from UMG's music library across Meta's platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Horizon, Threads and WhatsApp) without infringing copyright.
The most notable aspect of the new agreement is that the two companies specify that they are addressing “unlicensed AI-generated content,” which often refers to songs that have been scraped by AI systems without the consent of the original creators. Artists and songwriters have increasingly been plagued by AI fakes and works that AI companies are using to train their models.
“We look forward to continuing to work together to address unauthorized AI-generated content that may impact artists and songwriters so that UMG can continue to protect their rights now and into the future,” UMG chief digital officer and executive vice president Michael Nash said in a statement.
The partnership follows a dispute between TikTok and UMG earlier this year that led to the label's music catalog being removed from the short-form video app. In a statement released in February, UMG highlighted concerns about AI and online safety on the platform. The two companies called a truce in May, allowing music from artists including Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift to once again stream on TikTok.
The new agreement also follows an AI-related lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (representing UMG and other major record labels) against music generation startups Udio and Suno, which allegedly used copyrighted music to train their AI models. Earlier this month, Sudo publicly acknowledged that it had used copyrighted songs but argued that it was lawful under fair use.
Meta, on the other hand, claims to take an ethical approach to AI music, and according to its website, only releases generative AI models (AudioCraft, MusicGen, Jasco) that are trained on “Meta-owned and specifically licensed music.” However, as TechCrunch's Kyle Wiggers points out, Meta acknowledges that AudioCraft could be misused to create a deepfake of someone's voice.
Additionally, this marks the first time that WhatsApp users will be able to share music licensed from UMG within the instant messaging app, including Meta-owned social networking app Threads, a direct competitor to X (Twitter).
Meta and UMG first partnered in 2017, marking the first time a major music company allowed Facebook users to upload and share videos featuring songs from its music catalog.