Taylor Swift's songs and those of other popular singers and bands will soon be removed from TikTok's library since the platform's agreement with the Universal Music Group is about to expire.
On Tuesday, Jan. 30, UMG, the world's largest music company, published an open letter titled "Why We Must Call Time Out on TikTok" to explain why it will no longer renew its deal with the platform.
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UMG said that the terms of its relationship with the social media giant are set by a contract, which will expire on Jan. 31. In their deal, the music group has been pressing TikTok on three critical issues.
Unfortunately, UMG didn't get what it wanted because the platform failed to solve these three problems. Here are other details.
TikTok-UMG Deal Expiration Will Lead To Removal of Taylor Swift, Other Popular Songs
According to The Guardian's latest report, the UMG-TikTok deal expiration will lead to the removal of songs of popular musicians on the University Music Group labels, such as Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Harry Styles, etc.
This is a huge blow for TikTok since it is a social media platform that greatly relies on music compared to Facebook and other online platforms.
This can be seen in popular videos using the songs of Taylor Swift. Recently, another UMG-owned music, "Murder on the Dancefloor" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, also trended on TikTok.
Some celebrities and popular online influencers danced to this song, allowing them to generate millions of views and likes, as well as thousands of comments from TikTok users.
However, UMG will soon start removing popular songs it owns from TikTok because it failed to reach an agreement with the social media platform.
"TikTok's tactics are obvious: use its platform power to hurt vulnerable artists and try to intimidate us into conceding to a bad deal that undervalues music and shortchanges artists and songwriters as well as their fans," said the Universal Music Group.
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Want Went Wrong With TikTok-UMG Deal?
A young man holding a smartphone casts a shadow as he walks past an advertisement for social media company TikTok on September 21, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. U.S. President Donald Trump has given preliminary approval for Oracle, Walmart and other investors to take over TikTok.
Via its official open letter, UMG said that TikTok wasn't able to solve these three main issues:
- Protecting human artists from the use of AI
- Online safety for users on TikTok
- Appropriate compensation for artists and songwriters under UMG
The Universal Music Group said that TikTok is only paying its songwriters and artists at a rate that is a fraction of those offered by other social media platforms.
Aside from this, UMG also stated that TikTok allows AI-generated songs to flood its platform, which negatively affects real singers and other musicians.
"Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music," said UMG.
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