Universal Music Group set the music world ablaze on Tuesday with its scathing open letter, announcing that it will remove its music from TikTok after its licensing deal with the platform expires on January 31. That letter amounts to a nuclear bomb threat from UMG, the culmination of a year of tense negotiations between the world's biggest music label and its most important viral marketing device.
The industry is currently on guard, wondering if this drastic move will actually come to fruition or if the two sides will reach an eleventh-hour truce to avoid all-out war. As the situation continues to evolve, here's what you need to know about the situation.
Why UMG is threatening to remove music from TikTok?
Mainly, money. TikTok has quickly become one of the most powerful and lucrative social media platforms on the planet, pulling in billions of dollars each year from its ad revenue and e-commerce business. Music, meanwhile, has been a major part of TikTok's appeal, giving millions of creators access to famous hits to soundtrack their content.
UMG argues that its catalog is a vital aspect of TikTok's success and that without it, the app would lose its appeal. The company also believes that artists are not paid enough for how much music is consumed. While a viral TikTok song garners hundreds of millions of views and appears on thousands of videos, the payouts are paltry, with the company claiming in its letter that TikTok makes up just 1 percent of UMG's revenue.
“Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business without paying fair value for music,” UMG wrote.
The company also pointed to TikTok's approach to artificial intelligence as a driving factor in the failed negotiations, along with security concerns. TikTok has sought a deal to allow TikTok users to create AI music on the platform, which UMG said would “reduce the pool of rights for human artists, in a move that amounts to nothing less than sponsoring an AI replacement artist.” .
TikTok disputed UMG's claims, saying in a statement Thursday that UMG “put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.
“TikTok has been able to enter into 'artist first' deals with every other company and publisher,” the platform said. “Clearly, Universal's self-serving actions are not in the best interest of artists, songwriters and fans.”
What if UMG pulls his music?
Removals could begin as soon as today. Until that actually happens, it's unclear what it looks like. But at worst, Armageddon could be an understatement.
Some songs by superstars like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Drake and Post Malone may not be available and thousands of videos of those songs may be muted. And that's just on the recorded music side. All music has two copyrights: one for the recording itself and a publishing copyright for the composition of the song.
UMG said in its letter that the termination of its contract also includes UMPG publishing. The publisher represents hundreds of songwriters whose credits span all major labels. So while Steve Lacy has licensed his recorded music, such as the TikTok hit “Bad Habit” to Sony-owned RCA, as a songwriter, he's signed to UMPG, which means the music can also be subject to takedown . And songs penned by UMPG writers could also theoretically be subject to removal, though that would likely be an extreme decision given the impact it would have on other companies and artists.
TikTok could also face challenges with user-generated content as creators upload unlicensed snippets of songs, which UMG will likely start aggressively issuing DMCA takedown notices as they have done in the past for other platforms such as YouTube and Twitter.
What do artists think?
Artist sentiment falls into two categories: Those who feel it's time for TikTok to pay more, and others who believe UMG's decision is only in their best interest, not the artists'.
“A label stomping its feet for not being paid enough for the music it has is top notch comedy,” Russ wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday. “They say it's because 'our songwriters and artists aren't being compensated fairly,' when they're really worried about their own pockets.”
Artist manager Chris Anokute has overseen campaigns on viral TikTok tracks like Curtis Waters' “Stunnin'” and Muni Long's “Hrs and Hrs,” the latter of which won a Grammy for Best R&B Performance last year. In an interview with rolling rock, expressed how important TikTok is to helping fuel a hit, but also said that artists and writers are getting paid seriously.
“I think what's being done for marketing artists is incredible and necessary, but if you're making all this money from advertising and the music is driving the culture, we're sick of it. Why does music sell everything but itself?' says Anokute. “The payments are next to nothing. When you see these videos that have billions of views, hundreds of thousands [user-generated content] creates and the runtime of these videos is 30 seconds, that's almost a stream, where's the money?”
While TikTok has proven to consistently drive song consumption for artists of all sizes — which Anokute doesn't dispute — he also says that even TikTok is no longer a guarantee, and has found success on other platforms like IG Reels.
“It's not as easy to break a song on TikTok as you think. You can pay $100,000 for a TikTok Influencer campaign and it might not work,” he says. “What's happening with Instagram Reels is important. brings opportunity for song development. I have artists with 500 percent growth on Instagram in the last month, with videos with millions of views. Seeing which songs [break] Without TikTok, it separates the good from the great. At the end of the day, the music industry is three minutes and 33 seconds. People can connect the dots to find songs. We don't need to sing and dance for our dinner.'
How does this end?
If history is any indication, that fight likely ends with a new deal, though it's unclear when that will happen. This is far from the first dispute between a major music label and a tech giant. YouTube has been a blight on the music business for years, with major labels claiming in the 2010s that the video giant wasn't paying enough royalties and not doing nearly enough to handle unauthorized user-generated content on the platform, which similar argument to what UMG said about TikTok yesterday.
Who will come out on top by the end of this match, however, remains to be seen.
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/tiktok-universal-music-dispute-explainer-1234957811/