Universal Music Group has signed a licensing deal with Singapore-based video sharing app and TikTok rival, Lomotif.
As first reported by the Financial Times, UMG and Lomotif, which has been downloaded over 225 million times globally, have been negotiating a deal since 2016.
Lomotif counts 31m MAUs (monthly active users) and over 300m videos are being watched on its app each month.
With this agreement, UMG becomes the first major music company to globally license Lomotif.
The news of UMG’s fresh licensing agreement with Lomotif follows a string of deals signed with social media platforms this year.
UMG announced that it had struck a global licensing deal with TikTok in February and in June, the music company inked a global deal with Snap Inc. spanning recorded music and augmented reality experiences.
In February 2021, Lomotif sold an 80% majority interest in the app for $125m to digital media company ZASH Global Media, led by co-founders, former MoviePass Chairman Ted Farnsworth, and early Musical.ly (now TikTok) investor Jaeson Ma, as well as early Triller board member, Vincent Butta.
The acquisition followed the news in January that Zash had entered into a merger agreement with NASDAQ-listed Vinco Ventures, a mergers and acquisition company focused on the digital media space.
Last week, on July 23, Vinco announced the closing of the acquisition through its joint venture entity with Zash called, ZVV Media.
According to Vinco, the acquisition makes ZVV Media “one of the most powerful global short form media companies in the marketplace”.
Following its acquisition, Lomotif will be changing its name to LoMo and “will be rebranded and re-positioned in a new North American marketing campaign”, according to a press release.
“Social is a booming business.”
Michael Nash, Universal Music, speaking to to the FT
Speaking to the Financial Times, Michael Nash, Head of Digital Strategy at Universal Music said that, “Social is a booming business”.
“There was a time when the approach would be: we have a problem with the content on your platform,” added Nash.
“There has been a change in posture … we see the importance of engaging with companies as early as possible in the process.”
Added Nash in an official press release announcing the deal today (July 26): “We are very pleased that Lomotif’s fast-growing community of users around the world will be able to take inspiration from the artists and music they love, all while ensuring UMG’s artists are fairly compensated for the value music generates on Lomotif’s platform.
“UMG continues to broaden the creative and commercial opportunities for our artists by licensing an ever-expanding array of new digital platforms and supporting emerging entrepreneurs.
“We look forward to working with Lomotif to help unlock even more innovative music-based features for their community.”
“Our deal with Universal Music Group will continue to grow users and increase engagement within our platform.”
Paul Yang, Lomotif
Paul Yang, Lomotif’s CEO and founder, said: “Our deal with Universal Music Group will continue to grow users and increase engagement within our platform, a destination for emerging artists, and will significantly expand the types of music our community can utilize, collaborate with and share.
“With nearly 800 million videos created to date, we are heading in a great direction as a platform and making high-value content, functionality and features available to our community will only help us grow exponentially.”Music Business Worldwide
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