Universal Music Group's catalogue is in the process of being removed from TikTok after the stalemate in the licensing dispute between the world's biggest music company and the short-form video app was made public earlier this week. Universal has now issued a new statement, responding to TikTok's "woefully outdated" views on artist compensation.
For a quick run-down on the course of events, UMG released an open letter on Tuesday (January 30), notifying its artists and songwriters of the potential for a pending catalogue removal from the social media platform if they weren't able to reach a licensing agreement by the next day.
The company outlined three main pressure points in achieving a fair deal with TikTok: “appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users.”
TikTok responded within hours, accusing the music company of "greed" and creating a "false narrative" while emphasizing the app's role as an important tool for "discovery" and "free promotion." The social media platform also pointed out that it had been able to reach "artist-first" deals with every other label and publisher.
Sure enough, the two parties were unable to come to an agreement, and Universal's catalogue — home to some of the most popular artists in the world like Taylor Swift, Drake, the Weekend, BTS, Bad Bunny, Justin Bieber and Olivia Rodrigo – began disappearing from TikTok yesterday (January 31). It was last night that UMG released its latest statement, issued to Billboard by a spokesperson:
Our agreements with TikTok have expired because of TikTok’s unwillingness to appropriately compensate artists and songwriters, protect human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and address online safety issues for TikTok’s users (more on that here).
In fact, TikTok’s own statement perfectly sums up its woefully outdated view: Even though TikTok (formerly Musical.ly) has built one of the world’s largest and most valuable social media platforms off the backs of artists and songwriters, TikTok still argues that artists should be grateful for the “free promotion” and that music companies are “greedy” for expecting them to simply compensate artists and songwriters appropriately, and on similar levels as other social media platforms currently do.
TikTok didn’t even attempt to address the other issues we raised regarding harmful AI and platform safety. It’s no surprise that artist rights advocates are speaking out in support of our action.
