Universal Music Group (UMG) has begun taking down music catalogs of the artists it represents on TikTok.
UMG represents big names in the music industry including Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and Drake. Now, the songs from the said artists are no longer available on TikTok after the licensing agreement renewal between the platform and UMG broke down after it expired last January 31.
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Last Tuesday, UMG accused TikTok of attempting to bully them into agreeing with a “bad deal” that didn’t address their concerns regarding the appropriate compensation for both the artists and songwriters, as well as protection against AI-generated music, and online safety of TikTok to protect artists from “hate speech, bigotry, bullying, and harassment.”
TikTok then responded by saying that it was “disappointing” that UMG had “chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users,” and even accused the record label of putting its “own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.”
Now, existing TikTok videos that use music owned by UMG will be muted. Users can still edit such videos and replace them with music from other labels or their own.