TikTok users and musicians were left shocked this week after Universal Music Group – the world’s leading music distribution company – would pull its entire catalogue from the app.
After Universal and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, failed to reach a licensing deal, Universal announced it would pull its entire catalogue from TikTok at the end of its current contract – which happened to be a day later.
So, when the world woke up on February 1, it found a lot of videos were now silent.
UMG owns the rights to, well, the bulk of the pop music you listen to, from Taylor Swift to Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj and more. However, Universal is an umbrella corporation owning a lot of independent labels globally. It’s the largest distributor of music, with Sony and Warner being the other two major players in this space.
While Taylor Swift might not need TikTok’s distribution help, there are a lot of (predominantly young) musicians who use the app solely for the opportunity it provides.
Since its conception, TikTok has proven to be a major influence in the music space. It has minted the careers of many artists, in many cases democratising the marketing process that allow artists to be seen and heard.
Once-unknown artists, like Lil Nas X and Australian success story Peach PRC have the app to thank for their fame.
The app is also responsible for stacking billboard charts, with rsearch from 2021 suggestly 67% of people would seek out music on a streaming platform if they heard it on TikTok. If a song is successful on TikTok, it’s bound to find a place on the charts – it could even win the artist a Grammy.
Smaller artists who’ve found success on the platform are now wondering how they’re going to reach their audiences or market music if they can’t share it on the app.
However, Universal specifically said that during their negotiations with TIkTok the app removed music from its newer artists as an intimidation tactic.
“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. 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,” Universal accused in an open letter.
Who’s to say who cares more about independent artists, but it seems this group are the biggest losers in the fall-out of this deal.
Why Did Universal Pull Its Music From TikTok?
Universal’s licensing contract with TikTok expired on January 31, 2024. That same day, the label published an open letter saying the contract would not be continued, and thus, it would pull its music from the platform.
In the letter, Universal outlined that contract renewal discussions centred around “three critical issues—appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users.”
It then accused TikTok of not offering adequate compensation for its artists.
“With respect to the issue of artist and songwriter compensation, 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,” the letter read. “Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music.”
Universal also took issue with TikTok’s use of AI tools and AI-generated music.
Universal’s beef with TikTok is not exactly new. Industry tensions between labels and new media platforms – first YouTube, then Spotify, even way back to MySpace – are ongoing as these two businesses seek to find profit in the other.
Hopefully, there’s a solution around the corner.
