The TikTok-ification of Spotify is almost complete. First Spotify pivoted to video. Now Universal Music Group (UMG) is expanding its partnership with the music streaming giant to compensate for pulling its music from TikTok.
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Spotify and UMG announced that Spotify will give UMG artists access to new promotional and social tools. In a press release Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify, said, “The forthcoming features will put more power in the hands of artists and their teams to help them authentically express themselves, efficiently promote their work, and better monetize their art.”
While Spotify has yet to specify what these tools look like, they will likely take the form of more video content on the platform as the partnership also gives Spotify permission to distribute Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) music videos.
Spotify’s turn to video already frustrated users, and UMG’s new reliance on the platform for artist promo will likely exacerbate the problem. Like nearly all social media platforms, Spotify continues to stray further from what users love in order to be its very own TikTok — and this partnership won’t help.
At the end of January, UMG pulled its catalog from TikTok after negotiations to renew their contract broke down between the music corporation and the social media platform. In an open letter, UMG identified “appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users” as three key issues TikTok neglected to address. In February, UMG removed all songs controlled by UMPG, which includes any song that a UMG signed-artist wrote or co-wrote.
In a press release, Sir Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO of UMG said, “Spotify has been a committed partner in creating tools that help maximize attribution and fair pay for artists and songwriters,” despite artists reportedly earning a fraction of one cent per stream on Spotify.