![Universal Music Group Announces New Royalty Program For Legacy Artists Waiving Unrecouped Advances](https://music-b26f.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Universal-Music-Group-white_0.jpg)
![Universal Music Group Announces New Royalty Program For Legacy Artists Waiving Unrecouped Advances](https://music-b26f.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Universal-Music-Group-white_0.jpg)
Universal Music Group will follow Sony Music and Warner footsteps by announcing their own program for certain legacy artists to receive royalties without having recouped their advance payments according to Billboard. Eligible artists will receive royalties backdated to the start of 2022, but Universal did not explain who would qualify or why.
“UMG is proud to initiate a worldwide goodwill program for certain legacy featured recording artists and songwriters with unrecouped balances,” UMG execs said of the subject in the annual report. “By not applying their unrecouped advances to royalty statements for any period beginning January 1, 2022, eligible creators and their immediate heirs who have not received any payments since January 1, 2000, will begin receiving royalties, subject to certain conditions,” continued the leading label. “Within the coming months, UMG will contact eligible artists and songwriters.”
Acts including Dwight Yoakam and The Jesus and Mary Chain are taking steps to recapture their copyrights under the Copyright Act of 1976. With this new program, it adds a more diverse background for the company.
In 2021, they began refferring Columbus Day as Wellbeing Day, establishing a year-round Wellbeing Fridaysand included both Gen Z and Baby Boomers on a list of “untapped communities.” They also collaborated with Therapeutic company MedRhythms. MedRhythms is a digital therapeutics company building direct stimulation solutions that use clinical-grade sensors, software and music to help restore function lost to neurologic disease or injury.