The music of artists affiliated with record company Universal Music Group (UMG) can no longer be heard on TikTok. The largest music group in the world, with artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny under contract, has not reached a new licensing agreement with TikTok. As of Thursday, TikTok videos that incorporated the music of UMG artists have been paused. “This sound is not available,” it says.
Universal Music Group published Tuesday a vicious letter in which it explained why it would not again work with the social medium of the Chinese technology company ByteDance. According to the music group, the three main stumbling blocks are financial compensation for artists, protection for artists against the harmful effects of artificial intelligence and the online safety of TikTok users.
In the letter, the American record label writes that TikTok wanted to pay “a fraction” of the financial compensation that other comparable social platforms are willing to offer. “Ultimately, TikTok is trying to build a music-based platform without paying fairly for music.” UMG says it gets only 1 percent of its total revenue from TikTok, which has more than a billion users.
TikTok did not ignore the accusations and responded on Thursday by saying that UMG is the only label with which a new licensing agreement has not been reached. The platform says it put the artists first during the negotiations. According to TikTok, the fact that UMG still declined the offer proves that the record company does not act at all in the interests of artists, songwriters and fans.
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