Universal Music pulls TikTok audio as license expires
Videos on TikTok began to go silent early Thursday, after licensing negotiations broke down between the popular social media platform and Universal Music Group, the company that releases music by artists such as Taylor Swift, Drake, U2 and Ariana Grande.
On Tuesday, a day before its licensing contract with TikTok was set to expire, Universal — the largest of the three major record companies — published a fiery open letter accusing TikTok of offering unsatisfactory payment for music, and of allowing its platform to be “flooded with AI-generated recordings” that diluted the royalty pool for musicians.
TikTok confirmed early Thursday that it had removed music from Universal, and videos on the app began to show the effects of the broken partnership. Recordings by Universal artists were deleted from TikTok’s library, and existing videos that used music from Universal’s artists had their audio muted entirely. Universal songs were also unavailable for users to add to new videos.
A video posted by Kylie Jenner in September, for example, using a song by Lana Del Rey, who is signed to a Universal label, was silent, with a note saying, “This sound isn’t available.” Other videos carried similar statements, including “Sound removed due to copyright restrictions.”
When users went to the official profiles for Universal artists such as Swift and Grande — who is scheduled to release a new album next month — the tabs that would normally display dozens of tracks that users could add to their own clips were either entirely bare or reduced to a handful of brief snippets.
The extent of the fallout was unclear Thursday, and a spokesperson did not provide an estimate for how many videos would be affected by the change. On Thursday morning, some videos using Universal recordings appeared to be unaffected.
TikTok, where users load
short video clips, often with music in the background, is a vital promotional arena for the music industry. A music-driven viral meme on TikTok can make a song a hit or revitalize a decades-old classic, as happened in 2020 with Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 track “Dreams.” Universal’s clash with the platform is the latest manifestation of a media conflict that has played out repeatedly for the last two decades between tech companies’ innovations and the music industry’s demands for control and compensation.
In response to Universal, TikTok on Tuesday accused the music company in a statement of putting “their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters,” and said that Universal had “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.”
Representatives of Universal and TikTok declined Thursday to make any new statements about their negotiations or the withdrawal of music from the platform.
Universal’s withdrawal was interpreted in the music industry as all but a declaration of war against one of the world’s most influential online outlets, although one over which labels have limited control.
It is rare for a music company to make good on threats to remove its content. That happened in 2008, when Warner Music pulled thousands of music videos from YouTube; the standoff lasted nine months, and Warner returned its videos once YouTube agreed to share advertising revenue with the label.
Despite the licensing deal’s expiration, experts note that negotiations between Universal Music Group and TikTok are ongoing — and the crisis probably won’t last forever.
“We’ve seen this movie before. It’s a wonderful, theatrical stand-off between two very major corporations … who are wanting to assert their authority on the landscape,” said former president of Universal Music Group’s Virgin EMI Records Ted Cockle, who now runs a music advisory company called Mussel Music Management.
Users will likely find ways to adjust in the meantime, Cockle added, but he and others doubt that such a standoff will last long — noting that a partnership between Universal Music Group and TikTok is significantly beneficial to both parties.
There will also likely be added pressure from TikTok creators, artists and their fans.
“This is a platform that’s really important for artists,” said Alexandra J. Roberts, a professor of law and media at Northeastern University. “It might not affect established artists as much, but some of them are going to lose revenue streams. And I think we’re going to see frustrated fans, right? Users who don’t understand or are angry about the fact that they can’t use or access or engage with some artists’ work.”
Representatives for several artists with Universal Music Group-licensed music — including Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, SZA, Drake, Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish — did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ requests for comment.
Andrew Mall, an associate professor of music at Northeastern University, stressed the overall consequences of pulling music from social media platforms like TikTok — particularly for younger developing artists. In this situation, Universal Music Group and its established big artists will probably be “just fine,” he said, but “smaller labels, smaller artists (couldn’t) afford to do something like this.”
Historically speaking, Mall said, gaps for other licensing agreements in the 21st century’s digital era have typically lasted for as little as just a day to up to a few months.
Content creators and marketing experts are already preparing to pivot as needed. Jessica Henig, founder and CEO of music marketing firm Unlocked Branding who works on campaigns involving Universal Music Group-licensed music, said it’s not ideal, but her team has grown accustomed to working through delays across the social media landscape.
Still, Henig, who previously headed influencer marketing at Virgin EMI, said time will tell.
“If this is going to be a longevity thing, then we might have a different conversation,” she said.