In the wake of Universal Music Group’s (UMG) public feud with TikTok, which led to the company pulling its entire catalog from the video app earlier this year, the company is doubling down on its deal with Spotify. On Thursday, UMG announced the expansion of its strategic relationship with the music streaming service that will focus on “music discovery and social interaction” as well as enhanced fan experiences. The addition of music videos is among these new features in the US
Spotify recently announced plans to support music videos, saying that in March it would beta test the option in 11 select markets — which, at the time, did not include the US. Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, the Netherlands, Poland, the Philippines, Sweden and the United Kingdom, the company said.
With the UMG deal, US users will also be able to watch music videos instead of just streaming audio. The companies did not say what portion of UMG’s catalog would be offered as videos, nor did they name specific high-profile artists whose videos would be included.
However, Universal Music Publishing Group includes a number of popular artists such as Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, SZA, Drake, Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar, Adele . and others. This catalog of 4 million songs was also pulled by TikTok after UMG failed to renew its deal with the video app.
To watch videos, Spotify users can access a new “Jump to video” option from the app’s Now Playing screen. Additionally, if you rotate your phone to landscape mode, you can watch the video in full screen.
As part of the new deal, Spotify will introduce new promotional and social features to help artists build excitement around their new releases. For example, UMG artists will be able to share teasers of upcoming songs and users will be able to pre-save music before a new release.
The companies will explore other feature partnerships over time, with more details to come, UMG said in a statement.
“UMG has consistently been a progressive partner on behalf of their artists and songwriters, contributing to product development efforts and early adopters of experimental tools to help artists stand out,” Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek said in a a statement. “The upcoming features will put more power in the hands of artists and their teams to help them express themselves authentically, effectively promote their work and better monetize their art,” he added.
The timing of the deal, of course, is notable given the drama surrounding TikTok. In addition to the potential US ban, the short-form video app and UMG have been unable to reach an agreement regarding TikTok’s use of UMG’s music. As a result, TikTok had to remove about 3 million songs owned or distributed by UMG by January 31, 2024. Later, it also had to remove more songs that contained compositions controlled by UMG — that is, songs written or co-written by a songwriter signed at Universal Music Publishing Group.
By partnering with Spotify, UMG still has a way to promote its music to its fans, even if its artists lose the ability to advertise on TikTok. In years past, the loss of UMG’s music would have been a bigger blow to TikTok, but given the app’s move away from lip-syncing and dance videos to more vlogs and long-form content, not to mention his controversial push for e-commerce;the impact may not be as profound.
