Universal and Amazon Music Strike Deal to Collaborate on Streaming 2.0, Audiobooks and AI Protection

Universal Music Group and Amazon Music have announced an expanded global relationship that will “enable further innovation, exclusive content with UMG artists, and advancement of artist-centric principles including increased fraud protection,” according to the announcement.

While full details were not disclosed, the deal is intended to advance UMG’s “Streaming 2.0” strategy, which focuses less on scale in streaming and instead aims to increase value through different subscription levels and selling merchandise and other products to fans.

On that note, the announcement states that UMG and Amazon Music will collaborate “to explore new and enhanced product opportunities designed to benefit artists and enrich the experience of their fans.” UMG will also collaborate with Amazon Music as it continues to expand in audio, including audiobooks, audio and visual programming, and its investment in livestreamed content. UMG and Amazon will also work collaboratively to address, among other things, unlawful AI-generated content, as well as protecting against fraud and misattribution.

UMG chairman-CEO Lucian Grainge said, “We are very excited to advance our long-standing, excellent partnership with Amazon Music that marks a new era in streaming—Streaming 2.0. We appreciate Amazon Music’s deep commitment to the interests of our artists, and look forward to progressing our shared artist-centric objectives through product innovation and accelerating growth of their service.”

Steve Boom, VP of Audio, Twitch and Games for Amazon added, “UMG has always been a collaborative partner to Amazon Music, and as we continue to invent and introduce more artist-to-fan connections through our product and exclusive content, we’re redefining what it means to be a streaming service. We’re thrilled to expand our relationship with UMG which will enable us to partner on meaningful new ways for artists to deepen their engagement with fans around the world, while working together to protect the work of artists, songwriters and publishers.”