The Merger Between UMG And Don Jazzy’s Led Mavin Group: Implication Tiktok By Kabir Adeyemo

On the 26th of February, 2024, Universal Music Group (UMG) and Mavin Global released a broadcast via their separate platforms announcing UMG’s proposed acquisition of a majority stake in one of the biggest Africa’s music powerhouse, Mavin Global. The partnership will accelerate Mavin’s strategic advancement and create more opportunities to break more talent globally, expand the reach of its existing roster and continue building its business into a super-serving, pan-African entertainment company. This mission is anchored in two initiatives: Mavin’s Artist Academy, which trains new talent in music and performance skills and builds connections within the roster, and their executive leadership program, which seeks to develop the next generation of music industry talent in Africa. The investment provides UMG an opportunity to increase its presence in Afrobeats and greater exposure to the fast-growing African market. According to UMG, Mavin will maintain autonomy over its strategy and future talent development. Don Jazzy, the founder and CEO of Mavin, along with the COO Tega Oghenejobo, will continue to lead the company under the terms of the agreement.

However, there are concerns. The Universal Music Group (UMG) had earlier on the 30th of January, 2024 released on its official website disclosing its decision not to renew the licensing contract between UMG and the popular social platform, Tiktok. UMG is advocating for appropriate compensation for its artistes and songwriters, protection of human artistes from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users. UMG is also accusing Tiktok of paying only a fraction of the rate of other social platforms.

According to UMG, the overriding responsibility they owe their artistes outweigh the consequences of leaving the Tiktok app. They will rather fight for their artistes and stand up for the creative and commercial values of music. This, is a trait that Mavin Global has also hold dear religiously, over the years.

TikTok, on the other end, is of the opinion that artistes should be grateful for the ‘free promotion’ and that music companies are ‘greedy’ for expecting them to simply compensate artists and songwriters appropriately, and on similar levels as other social media platforms currently do. TikTok doesn’t make its royalties public, and those rates are different depending on each label group’s deal.

The proposed merger between Universal Music Group (UMG) and Mavin Global has been on the lips of many for the past months. Though UMG might have been conceiving the plans to boycott Tiktok for a while now, the plan had not been hatched as at the period of discussing the terms of the acquisition with Mavin Global. Will this move by Universal Music Group to blacklist Tiktok make or mar the futuristic goals of Mavin and its Artistes?

In Nigeria today, the metrics has shown that many songs obtained their market acceptance and validation from the impacts of Tiktok. All Artistes, big or small, A-list

or Z-list are utilizing the social platform to gain traction and possibility of new daily fanbase. Some of these songs have also continued to pump in numbers on other platforms because of the sole and massive breakout of their singles on Tiktok. This is all credit to the idea behind TikTok which allows users of the App to create exciting contents using the available licensed songs. One of the pioneer beneficiary of the impact of TikTok is CKay whose song ‘Love Nwantiti’ released in 2019 re-entered the charts and broke so many outstanding records in 2021 due to the song’s breakout on TikTok platform. Also, from the Mavin dynasty, the likes of Rema, Ayra Starr, Crayon, Magixx, Boy Spice, Ladipoe and Johnny Drille have at different times gained massive streams with the leverage of TikTok.

Mavin is notorious for maximizing all opportunities in promoting their Artistes on various available platforms. They have a track-record of collaborating with content creators to push the visibility and listens from wide ranged audience. How will they deal with this ongoing tussle between their new partner/investor and Tiktok?

TikTok legally adds songs from artistes as sounds on its platform through licensing agreements, typically through negotiations with rights holders, such as the labels or publishing companies to which artists sign. The owner of the music’s rights receives the royalties in accordance with the agreement between the rights holder and TikTok. Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music. The platform’s inappropriate payments to artistes is now a topic of public discussion.

Asides UMG, Sony Music Group which is another top music company which has artistes like Beyoncé, Doja Cat, and Miley Cyrus, has earlier before now learnt its voice and expressed an interest in higher payment for short-form video. According to the Chairman, Rob Stringer Stringer “It doesn’t take a scientist to realize that we are being underpaid by some of those content providers”.

The Universal Music Group, while seeking for market-rate deal has made it a duty to ensure the ‘rights’ of its Artistes and Songwriters are duly, timely and sufficiently protected against Tiktok’s alleged low payout. By implication the Mavin-signed Artistes are indirectly controlled by the UMG management’s terms and policies. Just like Drake and Taylor Swift, will songs from Rema, Ayra Starr and the others be removed from Tiktok as a solidarity to the cause UMG is fighting for? If yes, then that will be an unpleasant disservice to the Tiktok users, especially fans of these Artistes. They will be denied easy access to newly released songs from their favourite Artistes and also be deprived of enjoyment to the existing songs from these Artistes, as songs previously added to the social platform will be removed by the label, and automatically muted on the end of the users.

As it stands, the public is still in the dark as to the terms of the agreement between the two industry shakers. The investment plans by UMG is set to be finalized by Q3 of this year as it is still pending regulatory approval.