Universal Music Group (UMG) has signed a licensing deal with TikTok rival Lomotif, a Singapore-based video sharing app. This deal has been in the works since 2016, with both companies finally reaching an agreement this week. This agreement marks Universal Music Group as the first major music company to globally license Lomotif.
Lomotif, which was founded in 2014, has been downloaded over 225 million times globally. They host a platform with around 31 million monthly active users, with over 300 million videos watched on Lomotif every month.
Lomotif is heading in a new direction
As of February 2021, Lomotif sold 80% majority interest in the app, totalling $125 million. Then in June, the same investors bought the remaining 20% of shares. It is not surprising to find out who made this huge purchase- ZASH Global Media, a digital media company. ZASH’s co-founders include former MoviePass Chairman Ted Farnsworth, Jaeson Ma who was an early Musical.ly (now TikTok) investor, and Vincent Butta who was an early board member at Triller.
According to a press release, Lomotif will soon be changing its name to LoMo and “will be rebranded and re-positioned in a new North American marketing campaign.”
This isn’t the first licensing deal Universal Music Group signed this year
With all of these new video sharing apps, labels have been busy figuring out the best way to license their music for use while paying artists fairly. Especially Universal Music Group, who owns one of the largest music catalogs in the world.
Earlier this year, Universal Music Group was in the process of figuring out another licensing deal, which had turned into a public dispute with the popular video-sharing app, Triller. UMG and Triller finally agreed to a new deal in May.
They also announced a global licensing deal with TikTok in February, as well as with Snapchat in June. Who will be next?
More Music Content
TIKTOK AND SPOTIFY TEAM UP TO OFFER FOUR MONTHS FREE OF SPOTIFY PREMIUM
WESTFIELD AND TIKTOK PARTNER ON A NEW EXPERIENTIAL VENUE
HOW TO BUILD A FANBASE FROM SCRATCH AS A MUSIC ARTIST UTILIZING SOCIAL MEDIA
POPGANG RECORDS / MANICS TALK INDEPENDENT LABELS, HOW TO GET LABELS’ ATTENTION, BALANCING BUSINESS WITH CREATIVITY [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW]
EDC ORLANDO ANNOUNCES STACKED LINEUP FOR 10TH ANNIVERSARY WITH TIËSTO, EXCISION, AND MORE
