Triller and Universal Music Group agree to a worldwide licensing agreement

 

By Emmanuel Legrand

Short video platform Triller and Universal Music Group (UMG) have buried the hatchet and signed what they described as an "expanded worldwide licensing agreements that span recorded music and publishing."

  With the new agreements, Triller will be able to offer to its users access to UMG’s catalogues of recordings and compositions from Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG).

  “We are pleased to announce our renewed agreement with UMG and our new pact with UMPG," said Bobby Sarnevesht, Chairman of Triller, who added that the agreements "ensure that artists and songwriters across Universal Music Group have full access to the global Triller ecosystem.”  

A growing source of revenue for artists

  The agreement closes a sequence that saw UMG pull out its catalogues from the platform, reflecting what was believed to be the lack of interest from Triller's management to secure licensing deals. 

  Jonathan Dworkin, UMG’s Executive Vice President, Digital Business Development & Strategy, said the deal with Triller "embraces the importance of compensating our artists, especially given the tremendous value music generates across their platform."

  He added: "With this agreement, UMG continues to expand the universe of licensed social media platforms that allow fans to legitimately create and share content, while also growing an important new source of revenue for our artists.”

Ensuring songwriters are compensated

  UMPG Chief Counsel David Kokakis said: “UMPG’s mission is to support songwriters. By licensing new platforms like Triller, we ensure writers are fairly compensated and we are strategically delivering growth to the overall publishing business.”

  AI-powered social media and music discovery platform, Triller allows users to create professional-looking videos within seconds and match them with audio. Triller's app has been downloaded over 300 million times. Triller is owned by TrillerNet.