Warner Music Group & TikTok announce first-of-its-kind expanded agreement

18 July 2023 - Press release

Global deal creates new revenue, marketing and insights opportunities for artists and songwriters 

 

Warner Music Group (Nasdaq: WMG) and TikTok today announced a wide-ranging, first-of-its-kind partnership that will benefit WMG's artists and songwriters, and TikTok's billion-plus users around the world. The multi-year, multi-product deal licenses the repertoire of Warner Recorded Music and Warner Chappell Music to TikTok, TikTok Music, CapCut, and TikTok's Commercial Music Library.

The deal will expand the level of partnership, collaboration, and innovation between the two companies. It will create new revenue, marketing, and insights opportunities for WMG's artists and songwriters, while deepening the engagement with TikTok's huge audience of passionate music fans.

As part of the deal, Warner Music Group and TikTok will find new ways to harness TikTok's revenue generation and promotional capabilities, as well as a wealth of insights. In addition, artists and songwriters will have access to new ways of working with TikTok's vibrant brand partners, as well as to new fandom development and monetization features, like merchandise, ticketing, and digital goods and services, among other opportunities. Further, the deal will see the joint development of additional and alternative economic models.

Additionally, the companies have agreed to a licensing deal for TikTok Music, the premium subscription streaming service that recently launched in Indonesia and Brazil, with plans for further growth in other markets.

The deal also paves the way for WMG artists and songwriters to leverage the unique promotional capabilities and engage with the growing community of users on TikTok's sister video-editing app, CapCut.

Robert Kyncl, CEO, WMG said: "We are happy and excited for our next chapter together with TikTok.  Through this expanded and significantly improved partnership for both companies, we can jointly deliver greater value to WMG's artists and songwriters and TikTok's users."

Shou Chew, CEO of TikTok, said: "We are very excited to partner with Warner Music Group to create a shared vision for the future in which artists, songwriters, music fans and the industry can all benefit from the power of discovery on TikTok platforms."