World’s biggest music label, Universal Music Group (UMG), and Facebook parent company Meta Platforms announced an expanded partnership to give UMG's artists and composers additional opportunities on Meta's social media platforms.

The latest expansion plan falls under the worldwide licensing deal that was initially negotiated in 2017 and calls for UMG musicians and artists to continue distributing their copyrighted music on Meta's social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Horizon, and Threads.

According to reports, a portion of the advertising revenue from the usage of licensed music on Meta creator postings will be allocated to UMG artists and songwriters as part of the agreement renewal.

Featuring legal music such as UMG will soon begin on WhatsApp under the direction of CEO Lucian Grainge, works to prevent unlicensed music—particularly AI-generated content—from violating the rights of the company's authors and artists.

Instead of establishing its own subscription-based streaming service like Apple Music and Spotify, the social media giant chose to permit licensed music content on its platforms, which led to the expansion of the agreement between UMG and Meta.

Michael Nash, chief digital officer and executive vp UMG, in a statement said: “We are delighted that Meta shares our artist-centric vision for respecting human creativity and compensating artists and songwriters fairly”.

“We look forward to continuing to work together to address unauthorized AI-generated content that could affect artists and songwriters, so that UMG can continue to protect their rights both now and in the future”, added Michael.

A dispute about royalties to be paid out on the social media platform TikTok was resolved when UMG and the company secured a new music licensing agreement in May 2024.

The goal of licensing agreements with social media behemoths is to pay songwriters and musicians for using AI in the entertainment sector, both online and off.