Universal Music Group Removing Its Music From TikTok

Overview

Universal Music Group Removing Its Music From TikTok refers to the fallout from Universal Music Group (UMG), an organization that owns the rights to music by many of the world's most popular artists, removing its catalog from TikTok on January 31st, 2024. This includes the music of Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Drake, Bad Bunny, SZA, Rihanna, Adele, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Harry Styles, BTS, Blackpink, J. Cole, Demi Lovato and Kendrick Lamar, among many others. UMG alleges that TikTok is paying its artists below market rate for use of the songs. It also expressed that the proliferation of AI music on the app to imitate some artists' songs was a concern. TikTok countered UMG's statements and argued that its platform offered free promotion and discoverability to UMG's talent. The move ultimately went through and songs from many popular artists were removed from TikTok, leaving a significant portion of the app's old videos without sound.

Background

On January 30th, 2024, Universal Music Group (UMG) posted an "open letter" threatening to remove its music catalog from TikTok, citing unfair compensation and concerns about protecting its artists from AI copycats.^[1] A key statement reads:

TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay. Today, as an indication of how little TikTok compensates artists and songwriters, despite its massive and growing user base, rapidly rising advertising revenue and increasing reliance on music-based content, TikTok accounts for only about 1% of our total revenue.

Universal also accused TikTok of selectively removing the music of some lesser-known artists in their catalog while keeping the music of major artists who drive traffic.

TikTok^[2] responded in a statement of its own, saying:

Despite Universal’s false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is they have chosen to walk 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 has been able to reach ‘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.

The full list of artists under Universal Music Group, which it claims includes over 6,700 artists,^[6] can be read here.

Developments

Upon the expiration of the previous deal between UMG and TikTok on January 31st, 2024, UMG pulled its artists' work from TikTok. In a statement to Billboard,^[3] UMG responded to TikTok's rebuttal with:

Our agreements with TikTok have expired because of TikTok’s unwillingness to appropriately compensate artists and songwriters, protect human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and address online safety issues for TikTok’s users… In fact, TikTok’s own statement perfectly sums up its woefully outdated view: Even though TikTok (formerly Musical.ly) has built one of the world’s largest and most valuable social media platforms off the backs of artists and songwriters, TikTok still argues that artists should be grateful for the “free promotion” and that music companies are “greedy” for expecting them to simply compensate artists and songwriters appropriately, and on similar levels as other social media platforms currently do.

Online Reaction

The move was unpopular with many fans of TikTok and the smaller artists under Universal who have used the app to promote their music. For example, on February 1st, 2024, Twitter / X user and musician @thayerperiod^[4] bemoaned the change, noting that hours of their life were essentially wasted by the decision, gaining over 200 likes in one day (shown below, left). That same day, Twitter user @carocartercaro^[5] also criticized the change, as many artists lost a way to promote their music via short-form content, gaining over 50 likes in one day (shown below, right).

On TikTok, users also reacted with dismay, memes and jokes about the music disappearing from the platform. A TikTok by user @2000smothafka about the change gained 5 million views in one day (shown below, left). Also that day, TikToker @iambobbyfoster called the decision "self-sabotage" on UMG's part due to the popularity of UMG artists, gaining over 1 million views in one day (shown below, right).

Search Interest

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External References