Universal Music Group (UMG), the renowned record label home to artists like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Ariana Grande, has announced its decision to remove its music catalog from TikTok starting tomorrow at midnight. This action follows unsuccessful negotiations with ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, regarding royalty agreements.
UMG has chosen not to extend its existing contract with TikTok, which is scheduled to conclude on January 31. Consequently, the label intends to discontinue licensing its content to TikTok and its music-centric platform, TikTok Music.
In a recent statement, UMG criticized TikTok, which reportedly generated nearly $20 billion in advertising revenue last year, for attempting to develop a music-focused enterprise while undervaluing artists’ contributions.
According to UMG, TikTok proposed compensating their artists and songwriters at a rate significantly lower than what other major social platforms offer for similar content. The label highlighted that despite TikTok’s substantial user base, soaring advertising revenue, and reliance on music-related content, its compensation to artists and songwriters still needs to be higher. As evidence, UMG noted that TikTok contributes only approximately 1% of its total revenue.
TikTok did not promptly respond to the request for comment. However, later in the evening, a spokesperson sent the following statement via email:
“It’s unfortunate and disheartening that Universal Music Group places their financial interests above the well-being of their artists and songwriters. Despite Universal’s misleading portrayal and language, they have opted to disengage from a platform boasting well over a billion users, which serves as a free avenue for promoting and discovering their talent. TikTok has successfully negotiated ‘artist-first’ agreements with every other label and publisher. Universal’s actions, driven by self-interest, do not align with the best interests of artists, songwriters, and fans.”
According to UMG’s press release, there was a disagreement between TikTok and the label regarding compensation for AI-generated recordings utilizing UMG properties. Additionally, UMG alleges that TikTok was not promptly removing content that infringed upon the label’s copyright.
