Today, Universal Music Group removed all of it sounds from TikTok, meaning videos which once used those songs, now have gone silent. Artists whose songs have been removed from TikTok include the likes of Taylor Swift and Drake.
This fallout between the social media platform and the music industry giant began over contract renewal disputes.
A statement by Universal Music Group to TikTok read “In our contract renewal discussions, we have been pressing them on three critical issues--- appropriate compensation for our artists and song writers, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users.”
Dylan Miller is a sophomore studying cinematic arts who has accumulated over half a million followers on TikTok. Dylan is frustrated but believes users will be able to still make content.
Dylan Miller: I think what really sucks about, like not being able to use certain songs by UMG artists is, UMG really covers like one third of the music industry. So I think it’s got to be definitely be very hard to adapt to the restrictions, but I still feel very confident in the fact that. People, especially on TikTok, get very creative and out of the box, especially like with songs in general.
And Miller expects that to continue.
Miller: I think it’s definitely going to be an adjustment as far as against so many like major artists Beyonce and Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish all are under UMG. So, like losing their music is definitely going to be a huge loss for TikTok.
This change could also affect less well-known artists says Lia Haberman. She’s in digital media marketing.
Lia Haberman: It’s going to hurt smaller musicians who are on the Universal Music Group label, because everybody getting pulled. You know, will no longer get that exposure. It’s possible that independent artists actually are able to move in and kind of fill that void, because there’s less music on there. Maybe people are going to be more willing to take a chance on, you know, emerging artists who are not on a label, for example. There’s a fairness to wanting their artists to be paid or compensated, you know, appropriately. So, I understand why they’re doing it, and I’m not necessarily opposed to it. I just think that, yes, it’s going to hurt creators. It’s going to hurt, you know, artists.
The director of outreach for social media club, USC Reach, is Jack Murphy. He says influencers might leave TikTok and move to other platforms if they can’t put in TikTok videos any music from Universal Media Group artists.
Jack Murphy: So, if TikTok doesn’t agree to what UMG wants, I think you could start seeing either. A TikTok based in like on popular audios and then more getting into the space of longform content for creators and then or just people moving to YouTube shorts.
If a new platform gains popularity, it could also change who joins USC Reach. Murphy says...
Murphy: People might shy away from using the TikTok platform and try pursuing like UGC on Instagram or something like that.
Murphy: Most of them are TikTok creators. Like, personally, for myself, I’m bigger on TikTok. I’m about like I’m reaching like 20,000 followers right now on TikTok, but on my Instagram, I’m like reaching 5K right now.
TikTok continues to have licensing deals with other music companies, but the power of Universal’s artists can’t be denied and if enough creators stop using their music, Universal and TikTok could be all but forced to return to negotiating.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Nathan Silva.