Universal Music Group has pulled the plug on TikTok's bottomless jukebox after announcing plans to stop licensing songs to the social media giant.
UMG, the world's largest music company, on Tuesday shared a scathing open letter claiming that TikTok “attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal” that would pay its musicians and songwriters “a fraction of the fee.” ” disbursed by competing social media platforms. The company said its agreement with TikTok expires today, January 31.
Removing UMG's catalog would significantly impact TikTok's user experience considering the platform's heavy reliance on access to trending songs with which its creators record content. Songs released by Taylor Swift, BTS, Drake, Olivia Rodrigo and many more contemporary superstars will disappear from the app unless their owners reach a deal with UMG before the end of today.
Elsewhere in the open letter, UMG said they have been pressing TikTok “on three critical issues: adequate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for users of “TikTok”. The organization also criticized the TikTok app as a “wave of hate speech, bigotry, bullying and harassment.”
“TikTok's tactics are obvious: using the power of its platform to harm vulnerable artists and trying to intimidate us into accepting a bad deal that undervalues music and defrauds artists and songwriters, as well as their fans,” it said. read in the UMG report. statement. “We will never do that.”
TikTok, owned by Chinese tech company Bytedance, responded Tuesday night, accusing UMG of putting “its own greed before the interests of its artists and songwriters.”
“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 promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent,” TikTok said in a statement. a statement.
TikTok had 1.5 billion monthly active users last year and is expected to reach 2 billion by the end of 2024, according to Application business.
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