A Lot of Your Favorite Music Might Be About To Disappear From TikTok

Universal Music Group’s contract with TikTok expires on January 31, 2024, but the two companies have been unable to negotiate a new contract. As a result, UMG is planning to pull all of its music from the platform before February 1st.

UMG is the largest music group in the world and owns over 15 major record labels, including Republic Records, Verve Label Group, and Capitol Music Group. Through its labels, it represents some of the biggest artists and songwriters in the music industry, including Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, Drake, Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, Justin Bieber, and Adele. Meanwhile, it’s well-known that the music of many of these artists is prominent on TikTok. These songs are available as TikTok “sounds, ” which users can pair with their videos or photo slideshows. It’s very common for all the latest pop hits to go viral on the platform. For example, Swift’s “Cruel Summer” sound alone has been used for 2.4 million videos on the platform.

The reason TikTok can provide copyrighted music on its platform is by partnering with music rights holders like UMG. TikTok and UMG signed a licensing agreement allowing the social media platform to use UMG’s music, and, in turn, TikTok compensates the artists. However, with the expiration of its current deal looming, UMG has been unsuccessful in negotiating higher compensation for its artists. TikTok’s refusal to offer a satisfactory deal means that a vast swath of its music might be leaving the platform soon.

What is the dispute between UMG and TikTok?

UMG published an open letter to the artist and songwriter community to explain why its deal with TikTok may be expiring. The letter explains that the company’s duty as a music group is to give its artists the greatest opportunities to reach their full potential. Hence, this usually takes the form of UMG nabbing partnerships for its musicians and negotiating fair deals. This is why the company first partnered with TikTok, allowing the platform to build its success, in part, off of UMG’s music.

However, UMG has been unable to negotiate a new contract with TikTok because the platform refuses to compromise on compensation, protections against AI, and protecting the safety of TikTok users. Unfortunately, TikTok allegedly isn’t open to addressing the issues. According to UMG, TikTok offered UMG an artist compensation rate far below what similar partners offered the group. It has also failed to address the problem of AI-generated recordings spreading across the app or prevent artists’ music from being used in inappropriate content. Similarly, TikTok has done little to address bullying, harassment, and pornographic deepfakes that frequently surface on its platform.

UMG also claimed that TikTok tried to intimidate it into accepting a deal that was worth less than the previous one. The letter concluded with the music group refusing to bend to intimidation and threats, promising to honor its responsibility to artists before agreeing to any TikTok deal.

TikTok’s response to UMG claims

In response to UMG’s concerning allegations against TikTok, the platform issued its own statement. The brief, scathing statement showed no openness to compromise. It claimed that UMG has created a “false narrative and rhetoric” and criticized that the company is walking away “from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users that serves as a free promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent.” TikTok also claimed to have reached “artist-first” agreements with every other music rights holder, suggesting that UMG’s refusal to accept their terms is because the group is “self-serving” rather than acting in its artists’ interests.

It is concerning that both statements have an air of finality about them. There is a chance, though, that this is just a tactic to pressure each other to compromise. After all, a deal between two extremely powerful companies will likely be challenging to walk away from. However, if neither gives in, it will have enormous connotations for TikTok and its users. Millions of songs will leave TikTok and wipe out an enormous portion of its content. Not only will viewers be unable to make new videos with these songs, but all existing videos with the songs will be muted. If things don’t change, users can expect to be scrolling through loads and loads of silent videos on their For You pages before the end of the day.

According to UMG, its partnership with TikTok only accounted for 1% of the music group’s revenue. If that is true, it means TikTok has a lot more to lose in this deal than UMG. Though the platform has been experimenting with AI songs, this hardly seems adequate to replace real artists.

(featured image: Chesnot / Getty)