More than two months after Universal Music Group (UMG) began removing its extensive catalogue from TikTok when the two parties were unable to reach an agreement in their licensing dispute, Taylor Swift's music is once again available for users of the short-form video app to incorporate into their videos.
As Variety reports, it appears that several of the pop star's songs — including "cardigan," "Cruel Summer," "Style (Taylor's Version)," "Lover," "mirrorball" and "Is It Over Now? (Taylor's Version)" — are back on TikTok this morning. It's unclear whether this is part of a larger resolution in the UMG dispute or if the pop star was able to cut a deal with the app independently, as she owns the masters to her own catalogue.
Swift's music was among the massive inventory of audio that began to be removed from the ByteDance-owned social media platform at the end of January. UMG, the largest music company in the world, further began removing its publishing catalogue from TikTok in late February, impacting songs that weren't released on a UMG-owned label and were by artists who had worked with songwriters under contract to Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG). Swift signed an exclusive global deal with UMPG back in 2020.
Much like anything she does, the timing of the singer-songwriter's catalogue returning to TikTok isn't exactly conspicuous: she's set to release her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, next Friday (April 19).
