Starting tomorrow Universal Music Group will officially pull its music catalog off of TikTok if the two companies can not reach a new licensing deal. This will be a major issue for both parties as UMG holds some of today’s most popular stars. As a result of this singers such as Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Drake and BTS would no longer be available as a soundtrack on the app.
In an open letter UMG named three “critical issues” that they could not agree on in negotiations: “appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users.” (via Stereogum). UMG expanded on this by stating that TikTok wanted to pay artists at a fraction of what other platforms pay and that of what the company makes only 1% comes from TikTok.
After UMG said that there were threats involved from TikTok, the company responded. The company stated that they felt it was sad that MSG was putting their greed above the interest of their talent. They added that they have chosen to walk away from the most powerful social media platform as they have over a billion users. TikTok ended their statement by saying that they have reached agreements with other labels in the past.
There is no clear indication that this issue will be resolved, if everything goes to plan all of UMG’s music catalog will be wiped from the popular platform tomorrow.
