Universal Music Group, which represents artists including Taylor Swift, says it will no longer allow its music on TikTok now that a licensing deal between the two parties has expired. Photo / AP
Universal Music Group, which represents artists including Taylor Swift, says it will no longer allow its music on TikTok now that a licensing deal between the two parties has expired. Photo / AP
Universal Music Group (UMG), which represents artists including Taylor Swift, Drake, Adele, Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish, says it will no longer allow its music on TikTok now a licensing deal between the two parties has expired.
UMG said it had not agreed to terms of a new deal with TikTok and plans to stop licensing content from the artists it represents on the social media platform owned by ByteDance, as well as TikTok Music services.
The licensing agreement between UMG and TikTok expired as of Wednesday.
In a Tuesday letter addressed to artists and songwriters, UMG said it had been pressing TikTok on three issues: “Appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI and online safety for TikTok’s users.”
Bad Bunny speaks at the Sony Pictures Entertainment presentation at CinemaCon 2022 in Las Vegas on April 25, 2022. Photo / AP
UMG said TikTok proposed paying its artists and songwriters at a rate that’s a fraction of the rate other major social platforms pay, adding that TikTok makes up only about 1 per cent of its total revenue.
“Ultimately, TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music,” UMG said.
TikTok pushed back against UMG’s claims, saying it has reached “artist-first” agreements with every other label and publisher.
“Clearly, Universal’s self-serving actions are not in the best interests of artists, songwriters and fans,” TikTok said.
Adele is one of the musicians who won't be available on the app anymore. Photo / AP
Yet Universal Music also called new technology a potential threat to artists and said TikTok is developing tools to enable, promote and encourage AI music creation. UMG accused the platform of “demanding a contractual right which would allow this content to massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists, in a move that is nothing short of sponsoring artist replacement by AI”.
UMG also took issue with what it described as safety issues on TikTok. UMG is unsatisfied with TikTok’s efforts to deal with what it says is hate speech, bigotry, bullying and harassment. It said that having troubling content removed from TikTok is a “monumentally cumbersome and inefficient process which equates to the digital equivalent of Whac-A-Mole”.
UMG said it proposed that TikTok take steps similar to what some of its other social media platform partners use, but was met with indifference at first, and then with intimidation.
“As our negotiations continued, TikTok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth,” UMG said. “How did it try to intimidate us? By selectively removing the music of certain of our developing artists, while keeping on the platform our audience-driving global stars.”
TikTok, however, said Universal Music is putting “their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters”.
