Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and Rihanna might come to Weverse following the 10 year deal between HYBE and Universal Music Group.
On March 26 local time, HYBE officially announced an expansion of their relationship with Universal Music Group that will give them exclusive distribution rights to HYBE artists’ music for the next 10 years.Universal Music Group will also be expanding its collaboration with HYBE’s fan communication platform Weverse, with more UMG artists set to join the platform in the near future. Following the same, suspicions surrounding global music leaders like Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and Rihanna joining Weverse have arisen.
According to the terms of the same, UMG has the exclusive right to the global distribution of physical albums and digital music by HYBE’s artists. Adding to this, UMG will also push promotions and activities of artists in North America.
Furthering this partnership equally from both sides, Universal Music Group will be augmenting the collaboration with HYBE by extending the fan communication platform by HYBE, Weverse, and having UMG artists presumably join the platform in the future. The biggest artists connected with UMG are global music leaders like Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and Rihanna. The possibility of them joining the fan communication platform is no doubt exciting for fans as they will be closer to their beloved artists in a new way.
However, the companies’ new exclusive distribution deal will not include social media sites like YouTube, TikTok, and Meta, meaning that HYBE artists will be able to remain on TikTok despite Universal Music Group’s current licensing feud with the short-form video app.
HYBE and Universal Music Group first began their partnership in 2017, when BTS signed with UMG for distribution within Japan. In 2021, HYBE inked a new deal that gave Universal Music Group’s Geffen Records the distribution rights for BTS in the United States and other regions.