“Kinda Funny Scrolling & Seeing Muted Dances” — Millions of TikTok Videos Go Silent
“TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music,” said Universal Music Group in its open letter that announced the two companies would not reach an agreement with the global licensing deal, which expired on January 31.
Universal Music Group published the open letter called “Why We Must Call Time Out on TikTok” on January 30, threatening to pull its songs from TikTok. Not many believed it at first, but the next day, UMG started removing its licensed music from TikTok. Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, BTS, The Weeknd, Drake, Bad Bunny, and Harry Styles are just a part of the UMG’s roster whose songs are wiped off from the platform.
Videos that already contain songs of these artists are muted, as Music Allyreports.
The rationale behind the decision comes down to three points:
- TikTok doesn’t pay enough to UMG artists in comparison with other social platforms, despite living off music.
- TikTok caters to AI-generated content and doesn’t protect artists from it. Universal Music Group, however, is crusading against it.
- The third concern was “online safety of TikTok users,” which wasn’t a problem for UMG all these years. We remind you that TikTok was accused of infringing users’ data safety several times before.
But there’s more. Universal Music Group claimed they refused to license TikTok for both its recording music catalogue (3 million songs) and music publishing catalogue (4 million songs). So, starting January 31, millions of tracks are being removed from TikTok. And, if they appear on the platform after that time, Universal Music Group can accuse TikTok of copyright infringement.
Interestingly, TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese internet technology company, and Tencent, another Chinese company, acquired ten percent of Universal Music Group in 2020.
👽 Conspiracy alert: Does China now influence the global music industry? Makes you think.
Funnily enough, all this is happening amidst the recent news of the TikTok Music launch, which might at least indicate TikTok’s ambitions of becoming a music streaming service.
TikTok vs. Universal Music Group public beef
UMG claimed they wouldn’t renew the global licensing deal because “TikTok proposed paying [their] artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay”.
As per an open letter from UMG, TikTok “accounts for only about 1% of our total revenue,” which, according to Music Business Worldwide’scalculations, is $110 million per year.
Regarding AI, Universal Music Group said that “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–and then demanding a contractual right which would allow this content to massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists, in a move that is nothing short of sponsoring artist replacement by AI.”
Then UMG added, “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. Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music.”
TikTok, in turn, accused Universal Music Group of “putting their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.”
“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 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.”
TikTok & UMG dominance in music
All this drama wouldn’t be worth our attention if the companies weren’t literally the most influential players in the music industry, so this face-off surely will impact the entire business.
TikTok’s influence on music is huge. And there’s plenty of data that proves that. According to TikTok’s own report, the platform acquired 150 million users in the US alone as of Q1 2023. Luminate recently conducted a survey that revealed TikTok’s influence on the whole music industry — from music discovery to having viral artists signed to major labels to merchandise sales.
According to The Pudding data essay on TikTok’s impact on music, “of the artists who charted on Spotify from January 2020 to December 2021, 332 had never charted before. 25% of them came from TikTok.”
“Over a year ago, every media outlet in the world seemed to be weighing in on her just-released song, ‘Anti-Hero,’ which took TikTok specifically and social media generally by storm. It’s okay if the song’s title means nothing to you because chances are the refrain ‘It’s me. Hi, I’m the problem. It’s me’ almost surely does.
This is how social media virality works. Something goes from zero to seemingly infinity overnight. It’s what fuels TikTok’s entire business model,” says Amplify’s chief strategy officer Aron Solomon in an email interview to Kill the DJ.
Universal Music Group’s dominance isn’t less. The company, the most majorfrom the major triad, holds rights to nearly all world-renowned artists dominating the world top charts, including Taylor Swift, Bob Dylan, Drake, Elton John, Ariana Grande, Adele, The Weeknd, and hundreds more.
Massive sway for the whole music industry: for artists, creators, and fans
It’s been just three days into the drama, so the consequences for artists, labels, TikTok creators, and both companies themselves are too soon to predict. Make no mistake, though, that the impact will be huge. Here’s why.
