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The music of major artists under the Universal Music Group is at risk of being pulled out after it announced it would no longer renew its licensing contract with TikTok. This comes as the talks for renewal of the agreement ended with terms not being met and issues unresolved.
Universal Music said it will not authorize the publishing of its content on TikTok and TikTok Music services once its current contract with the ByteDance-owned short-form video hosting service platform expires today, Wednesday, Jan. 31.
UMG's Grounds for Non-Renewal of TikTok Deal
According to Reuters, UMG has been urging the company to provide appropriate and better compensation for artists and songwriters. This was part of the discussions for the renewal, but apparently TikTok was not able to give a good response.
Universal Music also said it mentioned some proposals and raised important points to protect the artists and songwriters, but TikTok only “responded first with indifference and then with intimidation.” Thus, in the end, their talks for renewal ultimately collapsed.
Music of Major Artists Awaiting Pull-Out
Billboard reported that once Universal Music withdraws its catalog from TikTok, all the music distributed and managed by its record music unit, including the Universal Music Publishing Group, would be affected. Moreover, the songs of its artists would be removed from the platform as soon as the agreement ends.
This means that the music of Taylor Swift, BTS, Billie Eilish, Eminem, Drake, Justin Bieber, Post Malone, Lana Del Rey, Lady Gaga, and more is set to disappear on TikTok. Meanwhile, UMG and TikTok signed their last licensing deal on February 8, 2021.
“The terms of our relationship with TikTok are set by contract, which expires January 31, 2024. In our contract renewal discussions, we have been pressing them on 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,” Universal Music Group wrote in its open letter that was published on Tuesday, Jan. 30. “Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music.”
UMG further stated, “On AI, TikTok makes little effort to deal with the vast amounts of content on its platform that infringe our artists’ music and it has offered no meaningful solutions to the rising tide of content adjacency issues, let alone the tidal wave of hate speech, bigotry, bullying and harassment on the platform. Its tactics are obvious: use its platform power to hurt vulnerable artists and try to intimidate us into conceding to a bad deal that undervalues music and shortchanges artists and songwriters as well as their fans.”
