Universal Music Group has pulled the plug on TikTok’s bottomless jukebox after announcing its plans to cease 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” which would pay its musicians and songwriters “a fraction of the rate” disbursed by competing social media platforms. The company said its agreement with TikTok expires today, January 31st.
The removal of UMG’s catalog would significantly impact the user experience for TikTok 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 vanish from the app unless its proprietors reach a pact with UMG by the end of today.
Elsewhere in the open letter, UMG said they’ve been pressing TikTok “on three critical issues — appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users.” The organization also castigated TikTok’s app as a “tidal wave of hate speech, bigotry, bullying and harassment.”
“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,” reads UMG’s statement. “We will never do that.”
TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese tech company Bytedance, responded Tuesday night and accused UMG of putting “their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.”
“Despite Universal’s false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users that serves as a free promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent,” TikTok said in 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 Business of Apps.