Users on TikTok may soon witness the disappearance of songs from some of the biggest names in the music industry, such as Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and Drake, following Universal Music Group's announcement that it will remove its entire song catalog from TikTok on January 31, citing the failure to reach a new licensing agreement with the popular social video platform.
"Today, as an indication of how little TikTok compensates artists and songwriters, despite its massive and growing user base, rapidly rising advertising revenue and increasing reliance on music-based content, TikTok accounts for only about 1% of our total revenue," the music company said in an open letter.
US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs during her Eras Tour at Sofi stadium in Inglewood, California, August 7, 2023.
TikTok vs. Universal Music Group
The announcement was made through the strongly worded open letter titled "Why we must call time out on TikTok," addressing it to the artist and songwriter community.
Universal Music Group emphasized that the decision was prompted by the inability to come to terms with TikTok on three critical issues: fair compensation for artists and songwriters, protection from the adverse effects of AI, and ensuring online safety for TikTok users.
The company said it has been negotiating contract renewal terms with TikTok, as the existing contract will expire on January 31. The primary concern that the Universal Music Group raised was TikTok's proposed compensation, which it claimed was significantly lower than what other major social platforms pay for similar content.
Despite TikTok's massive user base and rising advertising revenue, the platform reportedly contributes only about 1% to Universal's total revenue.
AI-Generated Music on TikTok
On the issue of AI, Universal Music Group expressed concern about TikTok allowing its platform to be flooded with AI-generated recordings and developing tools to promote AI music creation, which could potentially dilute the royalty pool for human artists.
In the letter, the company accused TikTok of sponsoring artist replacement by AI without adequately addressing the impact on human artists. The letter also described TikTok's content removal process as "monumentally cumbersome and inefficient," similar to a digital version of "Whack-a-Mole."
"TikTok makes little effort to deal with the vast amounts of content on its platform that infringe our artists' music and it has offered no meaningful solutions to the rising tide of content adjacency issues, let alone the tidal wave of hate speech, bigotry, bullying and harassment on the platform," the letter noted.
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TikTok's Response
Responding to Universal Music Group's decision, TikTok expressed disappointment and accused the music label of prioritizing greed over the interests of artists and songwriters. TikTok said it has successfully reached "artist-first" agreements with every other label and publisher.
"Despite Universal's false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is 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," Tik Tok said in a statement.
"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," it added.
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