TikTok: Universal Music announces it is withdrawing its songs from the social network with its billion users

Europe 1 with AFP 10:04 a.m., January 31, 2024

The main global major in the music industry, Universal Music Group (UMG), announced that it was withdrawing its songs from TikTok after the failure of negotiations with the platform, particularly on the remuneration of artists and songwriters. Taylor Swift and The Weeknd are among the artists labeled by the American group. The TikTok application, from the Chinese group ByteDance, is with its more than a billion users one of the most popular social networks in the world.

In an open letter Tuesday, Universal accused TikTok of "trying to build a business based on music, without paying fair value for the music." The two sides discussed the terms of a new deal, with the existing contract set to expire on Wednesday. But the agreement was not renewed. TikTok reacted by saying it was “sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group put its own greed before the interests of its artists,” according to a press release.

Among the issues raised during the negotiations were "appropriate compensation" for artists and songwriters, online security for users, as well as protecting artists from the harms of artificial intelligence, the letter added. UMG. But as negotiations progressed, “TikTok attempted to intimidate us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, well below the fair value of the market and not reflective of its growth exponential,” Universal said.

Major record labels receive royalties from streaming platforms and social media.

“From January 31”

Universal said, however, that TikTok was offering to pay "a rate that is only a fraction of the rate paid by major platforms in a similar situation." Calling Universal's statements "false", TikTok believes that the record company has "chosen to turn away from the powerful support of a platform that has more than a billion users and which serves as a vehicle for promotion and free discovery for their talents.

Although TikTok has a large number of users, it only represents around 1% of Universal's total revenue, UMG further denounced in its letter. Universal notes other issues such as the presence of a large number of AI-generated recordings on the TikTok platform. According to a person familiar with the matter who wished to remain anonymous, all Universal-labeled music “will be removed from TikTok in the coming days, starting January 31.”

TikTok “has agreements with other majors and independent labels,” this source told AFP. “TikTok is not a music streaming platform and should not be licensed as such,” the source continued, noting that users could not listen to the full version of songs on TikTok and were limited to sixty seconds of music in their video creations.