As the short-form video space heats up, Universal Music Group (UMG) just became the first major music company to globally license its catalog to Lomotif, a TikTok rival app founded in Singapore.
Through a new deal between the two companies announced today (July 26), Lomotif’s claimed 31 million monthly active users will be able to create video clips using songs from UMG’s music library, which includes superstars like Ariana Grande, The Weeknd and Drake. Since its founding in 2014, Lomotif has collected more than 225 million installations across the globe, from Asia to South America to the U.S., according to a press release.
“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 executive vp of digital strategy Michael Nash said. “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.”
UMG’s licensing pact comes ahead of an imminent rebranding plan for Lomotif. Just last week, U.S.-based Vinco Ventures and ZASH Global Media finalized their acquisition of Lomotif through their joint venture ZVV Media Partners, with plans to rename the platform LoMo and launch a marketing campaign to boost its presence in North America.
The app enters an increasingly competitive market for short-form video content. While the space has long been led by TikTok, competitors include YouTube’s Shorts, Snapchat’s Spotlight, Instagram’s Reels and Triller.
“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,” Lomotif founder/CEO Paul Yang said. “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.”
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