Warner Chappell Signs Licensing Deal with Kuaishou

Warner Chappell has signed a new licensing deal with Chinese TikTok competitor Kuaishou, bringing the former’s songs catalog to the latter’s apps in what the major calls “priority markets”. Kuaishou operates under the brand Kwai in Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa, and as SnackVideo in South and Southeast Asia.

Natalie Madaj, SVP Global Digital, Warner Chappell said, “As the digital ecosystem continues to evolve in exciting new ways, social-sharing apps like Kuaishou are changing how people experience and discover music around the world. We’re very proud to be partnering with the team to bring our catalog of songs to Kuaishou’s engaged user-base and talented music creators.”

Kuaishou Head of Overseas Partnership And Communications, Calvin Liu added, “We’re always looking to partner with innovative music companies and this deal with Warner Chappell will give our millions of users access to new music to express themselves across our Kuaishou platforms”.

The Kuaishou apps currently have more than 180 million active users outside of the company’s home market of China. With music always important for apps of this kind, the digital firm has been slowly but surely entering into deals with record labels and music publishers, including the recordings side of Warner Music last year.

Under the new deal, Warner Chappell will be offering some exclusive content to Kuaishou users, as well as providing a license for any user-generated content that utilizes its songs (well, those songs that it directly licenses in the digital domain – because songs from many countries are still licensed via the collective licensing system).