A Disagreement Between TikTok and Universal Music Group
By Alex Garcia
Just recently, UMG withdrew from its deal with TikTok as they could not agree to a new contract. This now prevents TikTok from using songs from artists such as Taylor Swift, Drake, Olivia Rodrigo and many other UMG artists. UMG is one of the biggest labels in the music industry as they own a large portion of the market share, along with 15 other labels.
Many songs became popular with the help of users on TikTok. New songs were discovered, and existing songs became more popular.
Teen Vogue provides a list of songs that became popular with TikTok.
Songs that were featured on TikTok experienced a massive growth in popularity, allowing them to quickly climb up the music charts. New and upcoming artists had their moment to shine, they also gained fame. Established artists have experienced rapid growth once again as their previous songs re-entered the charts due to the virality factor of TikTok.
TikTok is a great promotional platform as currently, the app averages over 1 billion active users daily.
This failed deal is an opportunity for artists who are not affiliated with UMG to make progress in their music careers by promoting on TikTok. Lots of talented artists go undiscovered because of a lack of media attention on social media platforms. TikTok is a great start as it is a music-based application.
Many social media stars became singers with the help of their audience. Influencers such as JXDN, Nessa Barrett, and Dixie Damelio built a music career after their fame from the app, which helped them get a larger fanbase from the start.
At the start of their music careers, most influencers faced backlash due to transitioning to music. However, most of these artists are doing well in their newfound music careers.
New dances and trends were invented along with lots of other entertaining videos that were created on TikTok using songs that UMG owns the rights to. With this deal no longer happening, these artists have one less platform to promote their music.
With UMG and TikTok pulling out of this deal, any artist or secondary label that is owned by UMG will no longer have their music listed on the TikTok app. If you go into the app, you will see that all of the songs that are owned by UMG are deleted and muted from the app.
UMG does not operate as a single label as they also own the rights to many other labels. UMG holds power over many songs and artists having control of over a thousand artists.
Many artists sign into record deals with little to no knowledge of what the music industry is like. Most contracts do not grant artists with basic brand and contract rights.
Artists have minimal control over their own music careers. Record labels control when an artist can release music, the types of music they can release and the platforms they release the music to. The record label also gets a cut from sales. Most of the time the percentage is higher or lower depending on who the artist is.
The return of songs that UMG owns seems unlikely as of now. The ending of this deal can potentially decrease the number of users on TikTok and slow down streaming numbers for the artists who depended on TikTok to gain an audience.
TikTok and UMG each gave their statements online. The article that TikTok wrote states that "it was UMG who wanted to get out of the deal due to pay disagreements and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in specific songs". TikTok also goes as far as to call UMG a greedy label.
In the statement that UMG gave, they explained that TikTok was not able to meet their pay agreements stating that "TikTok was offering lower amounts than what was originally negotiated". UMG also explains the risk and harm that can be done by users who are creating AI music.
Lastly, UMG ended their statement by saying “We honor our responsibilities with the utmost seriousness. Intimidation and threats will never cause us to shirk those responsibilities".
