TikTok and UMG bump heads amid fallen contract renewal negotiations

Universal Music Group (UMG) has recently removed their catalog of music from the video-sharing giant TikTok after almost three years this week.

It’s common for TikTok content creators to add song clips in their videos. This practice is intended for participating in viral trends, adding value in terms of content engagement.

The fallen contract negotiations led to creators unable to make new videos with licensed snippets from UMG artists. Even previously published videos that used UMG-licensed music have gone silent, alerting the public of their discontinued partnership.

Here are some of the popular artists included in the UMG catalog:

• Ariana Grande
• Billie Eilish
• BTS
• Drake
• Taylor Swift

This week, UMG released a statement a day before their contract with TikTok expired. UMG claims that their negotiations fell apart due to conflict over artist compensation, artificial intelligence protection, and platform safety.

TikTok responded to the statement immediately, stating that UMG prioritized their own gain over the interests of their artists and songwriters.

The statement reads as follows, “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,”.

UMG has also taken issue with generative AI tools, with their statement claiming TikTok promotes the creation of AI music. However, this hasn’t been the first time that UMG has declared war on machine learning.

The label recently filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, stating that their AI model uses copyrighted lyrics from UMG artists.

We’ve yet to see how this will affect our media consumption, as music is also a huge part of TikTok content. We’ll be sure to update you of any developments on the issue in the meantime.