Spotify and UMG Want to Go Viral without TikTok

The two companies are expanding their partnership to include teasers, pre-saves, and music videos.

Spotify and Universal Music Group (UMG) are working together to make the record label’s artists viral — sans TikTok.

As part of an expansion of their existing partnership, UMG artists, including Taylor Swift and Drake, will have the ability to share teasers of upcoming music on Spotify and offer a pre-save option for new releases, the record label announced Thursday. The moves are part of the label’s efforts to help fans discover artists and “propel virality” of new song drops.

This also includes a new deal with Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) that allows Spotify U.S. to share UMG artists’ music videos. This will allow UMG to “bring deeper ‘social music’ experiences” to Spotify, while increasing artist engagement with listeners, particularly when it comes to “new music and artist-centric initiatives,” said Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO of UMG.

The announcement comes on the heels of TikTok’s removal of all songs written or co-written by artists signed to UMG after a contentious music rights dispute between the two firms, following the expiration of their contract earlier this year. UMG said that TikTok proposed paying the label’s artists and songwriters “a fraction” of the rate that other major platforms pay, while the social media site accounted for only roughly 1% of its total revenues.

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