Songs From Many Of Your Favorite Artists Will Soon Be Unavailable As TikTok Sounds
TikTok has undeniably changed the music industry. Songs are blowing up because of quick soundbites and gaining momentum a speed rarely seen before the platform. And artists, record labels, and other entities have had no choice but to adjust and cater to it. But now one major record label is taking a stand. It’s a ballsy stand, but Universal Music Group who is home to massive artists including Taylor Swift looks to be removing artist’s music from the social media platform.
Universal has gone even farther-accusing the social media app of bullying the label. They are now saying that the company will no longer license content to TikTok. The main reason for this is due to issues including artist compensation and recently AI. UMG says that TikTok has tried to rope UMG into a deal that is worth less than its previous pact. The current deal expires on January 31st. This means today could very well be the last day you’ll see some of your favorite songs available as sounds. Of course, like any major dispute things can change, and one side often does give in to the deal. We saw it at the beginning of football season locally with Spectrum and ESPN.
In an open letter penned by UMG they state their three main concerns are “appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users.” As much as I do enjoy using the TikTok platform I am in full support of Universal for taking this stand. Artists and songwriters deserve to be paid. While I don’t want to feed into it we witnessed the horrible effects of AI this weekend on X. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, well be glad you don’t.
“The companies have not agreed to terms for a new agreement, and upon expiration of the current agreement, Universal Music Group, including Universal Music Publishing Group, will cease licensing content to TikTok and TikTok Music services,” the company said. As to be expected TikTok responded with a statement of its own trying to place the blame on Universal. “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.”
Yes, TikTok can be viewed as “free advertising” and a great way to get your music out there. But TikTok acting like they don’t benefit immensely from having the music on the platform? In my opinion, it’s not a good look. So don’t go looking for songs from artists like Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, and Drake tomorrow on TikTok. It won’t be there for you to find.
