TikTok to lose Taylor Swift music amid tiff with label Universal Music Group

Taylor Swift and other stars' music could disappear from TikTok after Universal Music Group (UMG) announced Tuesday that its negotiations for a renewed licensing agreement with the popular short video platform yielded no results. 

In an open letter penned this week, UMG explained that its contract with the app expires on Jan. 31, noting that its stance in the negotiations has emphasized three "critical issues," mentioning "appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users."

"TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay," the letter explained.

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"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."

UMG succinctly followed by saying, "Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music."

The label's letter also called out TikTok's leniency on artificial intelligence, noting that the platform not only allows AI-generated recordings to circulate among its content, but also enables users to create AI music on the platform itself.

"[TikTok then demands] 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," UMG stated.

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In a third swipe, UMG's letter argued that TikTok fails to adequately address "content adjacency issues" and offers no efficient way to remove "problematic content," including explicit deepfakes, from its platform. 

They accused TikTok of "bullying" them into accepting a deal of lesser value than the previous deal during the negotiation process.

"How did it try to intimidate us? By selectively removing the music of certain of our developing artists, while keeping on the platform our audience-driving global stars."

"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," UMG said.

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TikTok fired back at UMG in a statement responding to the complaints Tuesday, accusing the label of "greed" and prioritizing money over the best interest of its artists.

"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," the remainder of the statement read in full. 

Universal Music Group also represents other popular artists, including Drake.

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