Song removals from TikTok by Universal Music Group The early hours of Thursday, videos on TikTok stopped after licensing negotiations between the popular social media platform and Universal Music Group collapsed,
The record label giant that represents artists such as Taylor Swift, Drake, U2 and Ariana. She was instrumental in the platform’s rapid rise around the world.
On Tuesday, a day before its licensing deal with TikTok expired, Universal published an open letter accusing the platform of offering substandard payments for music and allowing its platform to be “flooded with AI-generated recordings” that reduced royalties to real human musicians.
The social network confirmed early Thursday that it had removed Universal’s music, and the effects of the broken partnership were evident on the app. Universal artists’ recordings have been removed from TikTok’s library, and existing videos using these artists’ music have been completely muted. Global songs are no longer available for users to add to new videos.
For example, a video Kylie Jenner posted in September that used a song by Lana Del Rey, who is signed to Universal, was silent, with a note saying: “This audio is not available .” Other videos included similar phrases, such as “Audio has been removed due to copyright restrictions.”
When visiting the official profiles of Universal artists, such as Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande, tabs that typically display various tracks that users can add to their own clips were empty or were shortened to short snippets.
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The extent of the consequences is still unclear. Before the deadline passed, a TikTok spokeswoman did not provide an estimate of how many videos would be affected by the change. Some videos using Universal Recordings appeared unaffected Thursday morning.
In response to Universal’s allegations, the platform issued a statement on Tuesday, accusing the company of putting “its greed before the interests of its artists and songwriters” and noting that Universal “has chosen to move away from the strong support of the platform with a good reputation, which serves as a free way to promote and discover talent, with More than one billion users.
Representatives of the two companies declined to comment further on the negotiations or the removal of music from the platform.
Universal’s withdrawal has been interpreted in the music industry as almost a declaration of war against one of the world’s most influential online media outlets, although record companies have limited control. TikTok has entered into licensing deals with several music companies and has become a vital means of promoting new and old music;
A music-driven viral meme on social media can turn a song into a hit or revive a decades-old classic, as happened in 2020 with Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 song, “Dreams.”
It is worth noting that contentious negotiations and public criticism are common when it comes to large music companies and technology platforms negotiating content licenses. However, it is rare for a music company to follow through on threats to remove its content, as happened in 2008 when Warner Music removed thousands of music videos from YouTube ; The standoff lasted nine months, and Warner returned his videos after YouTube agreed to share advertising revenue with the company.
