If you've been scrolling through TikTok recently, you may have noticed that it sounds different than it did a few months ago.
Users have gotten creative with their audio choices. They have published modifications to a song from the children's cartoon Little Einsteins, The Spongebob Squarepants theme song, music from the Kahoot quiz platform, Kevin MacLeod's Royalty Free Song “Sneaky Snitch” and 20th Century Fox theme. Dances have been set classical musicand iPhone ringtone. Users have even posted screen recordings of what it's like to scroll through their feeds, one with the text, “This is the funniest era of TikTok ever.”
That's because Universal Music Group (UMG) and TikTok failed to reach a new licensing deal after the previous one expired on January 31. The UMG version an open letter on Jan. 30 citing concerns about artificial intelligence, compensation, harassment and copyright infringement on the social networking app. TikTok responded in a statement, saying: “It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put its own greed above the interests of its artists and songwriters.” Music credited to songwriters signed to Universal Music Publishing Group disappeared late last month after a grace period.
TikTok has proven vital to artists, breaking new artists' careers and making songs go viral, but UMG's delisting has also hit social media creators hard. Kenna Dean, 22, a dance creator with 1.7 million followers on the app, is one of the many TikTokers who discovered her music videos by Universal artists — including one with 1.5 million likes – had been muted.
“It was really frustrating, because it was time to put those videos out,” says Dean. “You have feedback on them and you have other people who have done your dances out there. And then all that disappeared, which was worrying.”
Dean had plans to film a dance collaboration with two other creators, @karaleighcannella and @jaedengomezz, the same day the catalog came out. “All the dance creators, we kind of woke up and were like, 'What are we dancing?'” says Dean. They stumbled upon Niana Guerrero's viral dance (which now has over 14 million likes) to Kevin MacLeod's “Fluffing a Duck” – a royalty-free track – as well as a dance to the Samsung alarm clock. “I just thought it was so funny,” says Dean, who jumped up both trends.
UMG is just one part of the music industry. There are, of course, many artists who aren't affiliated with Universal or any record label, and that music is still available for creators to use on TikTok – and many users have chosen to just use the music they have on hand. Dean pointed out that she tries to use more songs from independent artists.
“I think it's an opportunity that we can prove is also worth listening to,” says independent artist and creator Charisse Chua. “Being unsigned doesn't stop us from continuing to make good music and get it out there.” Earlier this month, Chua, 19, published a post a clip from her song “Would You Take It All Back?” with the caption, “umg songs may be gone [from] tiktok but mine aren't!!”
But it's still a challenge to get the music to more viewers. “I expected there to be a lot more interaction than there was,” Chua says, adding that there are many artists trying to use the app to boost their music.
Many TikTokers have also turned to covers as a way to replace missing songs. In one video, the creators danced to a cover of Lady Gaga's “Bad Romance”. from Alvin and the Chipmunks movie theater. Another user made a video showing instrumental versions of medieval-style songs which garnered 1.9 million likes, with the audio used in more than 700 videos.
Joy covers are also popular, with a clip of the Glee Cast version of “Rose's Turn” uploaded by @girlyteengirl123, current trend in applicationhaving been used in over 300,000 videos and reaching No. 3 in Advertising signThe TikTok Top 50 chart. A remix of “Think U The Shit (Fart)” by Ice Spice in the style of the Nintendo character Toad uploaded to TikTok on January 26 – just days before the licensing deal expired – and has since received 2 million likes, having been used in nearly 9,000 videos, often as funny substitute for original song. And some users took matters into their own hands, recording covers.
“I just thought, 'Well, I'm a singer. I could just do my own acapella version,” says Vicky Ntamag, 25, a musician and dancer. She started uploading her covers on TikTok after the controversy to begin with a cover of it Nicki Minaj's “FTCU” and responds to few she asks in her comments. Her cover of “Crazy Form” by ATEEZ its acapella version was also used over 200 times “Talk Saxy” by RIIZE used in over 2,770 videos. RIIZE even posted a video dancing on the cover of Ntamag which now has a million likes.
At the time Ntamag posted the cover, the original song was still available on TikTok (RIIZE is signed to Sony Music Entertainment-owned RCA) but has since been removed as the song falls down Universal Publishing. RIIZE posted a video using Ntamag's cover with the text “don't worry everyone…we still got that sound!”
Some of these covers are gaining real traction – and attention from bigger artists. by Mikael Arellano cover of “Bejeweled” by Taylor Swift got 1.5 million likes, with OneRepublic commenting: “You can help us too…” Arellano then posted a video singing “Counting Stars” by the band and OneRepublic use the sound in two uploaded videos to his account. conan gray, who said recently rolling rock, “I think there will be a lot of interesting acapella covers from UMG artists until this is settled.” sang over a clip from his own music video.
“The TikTok community is really strong,” says Ntamag. “And we help each other with the songs. That's why I accept the requests because some of them want to use them for their edits or there are certain songs that were removed and I will do acapella [version] to help my fellow TikTokers.”
The common aspect drives TikTok. Building on a previous joke is how memes work and audio sharing is integral to it. Participating and even trending is the shared experience of being on TikTok, and certain sounds define seasons of the app — even if those sounds happen to be TV show themes and ringtones to capture the beginning of February. In the immediate aftermath of the controversy, TikTok seemed to be moving away from some of the more creative choices towards using music still available on the app, although covers and royalty-free tracks are still popular.
“We were all a bit upset when we saw that the music took off,” says Ntamag. “But I feel like it's also an opportunity that we can use to share who we are and how funny we are and what kind of music we make and how creative we can be.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/tiktok-umg-ban-alternative-sounds-creators/