Universal Music Group, the giant record label home to artists such as Taylor Swift, Drake and Billie Eilish, has threatened to pull its vast catalog of songs from TikTok if the companies do not reach a new licensing deal before their current contract expires. on Wednesday. (January 31).
As established in a open letter Published on Tuesday (January 30), the sticking points are three issues: “adequate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok users” . Universal said its efforts were met “first with indifference and then with intimidation.”
“TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters a fee that is a fraction of the fee paid by major social platforms in similar situations,” the open letter said, adding that the social media platform only accounts for about 1% of the UMG's revenue, despite its growing user base of over one billion (with 150 million users in the US alone) and “increasing dependence” on music.
Regarding AI, Universal stated that TikTok is doing nothing to prevent its platform from being “flooded with AI-generated recordings” while also creating tools to enable AI music creation. The label went on to say that TikTok is “demanding” the right to “dilute the royalty pool for human artists, in a move that is nothing short of sponsoring the replacement of artists by AI.”
Finally, UMG criticized TikTok for failing to offer “meaningful solutions” to combat copyright infringement of its artists' music and stem “the tide” of hate speech, intolerance and bullying on the platform.
TikTok responded to Universal with a statement of your own On tuesday night. “It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put its own greed before the interests of its artists and songwriters,” the company wrote. “Despite Universal's false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is that they have decided to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with over a billion users that serves as a free vehicle of promotion and discovery for their talent.”
“TikTok has been able to reach 'artist first' deals with all other labels and publishers,” that statement continues. “Clearly, Universal's selfish actions are not in the best interest of artists, songwriters and fans.”
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