Universal Music Group (UMG) has removed music catalogs of artists like Taylor Swift, Drake, and Olivia Rodrigo from TikTok.
This comes after negotiations to renew licensing agreements fell through. The previous agreement between UMG and TikTok expired on January 31st.
UMG claims that TikTok tried to pressure them into accepting an unfavorable deal that didn't address concerns about fair compensation for artists and songwriters, protection against AI-generated music, and online safety for artists.
UMG, the biggest music company in the world, accused TikTok of attempting to “bully” and “intimidate” them into “accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth.”
TikTok responded by expressing disappointment in UMG's decision to walk away from a platform with billions of users. They accused the label of prioritizing greed over the interests of their artists and songwriters.
As a result, UMG-owned music in TikTok videos will be muted, and users will have to choose alternative options from other music labels to replace the removed tracks.
The extent of the fallout was unclear on Thursday, and a spokeswoman did not provide an estimate for how many videos would be affected by the change. On Thursday morning, some videos using Universal recordings appeared to be unaffected.
