Universal Music Group (UMG) represents many popular artists, like Taylor Swift, Drake, Harry Styles, and many more. UMG pulled their music from TikTok after the platform attempted to “bully and intimidate” the record label into signing a subpar contract. The agreement between the two expired on January 31 and UMG started removing their songs from the platform after that date.
An open letter published on UMG’s website on January 31, said, “As our negotiations continued, TikTok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth.”
The label said they have three main goals, “appropriate compensation for [their] artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users.”
“TikTok proposed to pay our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate similarly situated major social platforms pay…TikTok accounts for only about 1 [percent] of our total revenue,” said UMG.
The label claimed that only one percent of their revenue comes from TikTok, regardless of its growing presence in the music industry.
Generative AI risks messing with the lovegoods and reputations of human performers.
“On AI, TikTok is allowing the platform to be flooded with AI-generated recordings—as well as developing tools to enable, promote, and encourage AI music creation on the platform itself,” said UMG.
TikTok also released a statement regarding UMG’s accusations by stating, “It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters. Despite Universal’s false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is [that] they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users that serves as a free promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent. TikTok has been able to reach ‘artist-first’ agreements with every other label and publisher. Clearly, Universal’s self-serving actions are not in the best interests of artists, songwriters, and fans.”
AI-generated is only one of the many concerns that UMG has brought to people’s attention.
UMG’s stand is another opportunity to see change similar to the SAG-AFTRA strikes. It is another opportunity for the movement to grow and shows other major music companies that they can pull their music catalogs. However, like SAG-AFTRA, strikes could put a halt on the music industry and their artists.
The growing TikTok platform does just fine without UMG’s giant music catalog. The platform often has many artists who release a teaser on TikTok before releasing the whole song.
“TikTok’s 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. We will never do that. We will always fight for our artists and songwriters and stand up for the creative and commercial value of music,” UMG said in an open letter.