Music from Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish, alongside hundreds of the most popular artists in the world, is about to be removed from TikTok.
It’s the result of a licensing feud between Universal Music Group, which represents the artists, and social media giant TikTok.
The two have been in negotiations for a new contract, as the current one is due to expire on January 31, 2024.
Universal released an open letter, outlining its fury at the way negotiations have been handled, citing intimidation and bullying. It said it would rather remove artists’ music from the platform than agree to TikTok’s offer, which it calls far from “market-rate”.
Further artists impacted include Elton John, Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Sabrina Carpenter, Troy Sivan and more.
There were three elements of contention in the discussions:
- Appropriate compensation for artists and songwriters
- Protecting artists from the harmful effects of AI
- Online safety for TikTok’s users
Here, we break down the issues at hand.
1. Artist Compensation
On the first issue, Universal claim that despite the platform’s growing user base, TikTok accounts for around 1 per cent of their total revenue. They claim the platform “proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms”.
“Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music,” they say.
TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance responded with its own statement, “It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put 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.”
They continued, “TikTok has been able to reach ‘artist-first’ agreements with every other label and publisher. Clearly, Universal’s self-serving actions are not in the best interests of artists, songwriters and fans.”
2. The Harmful Effects Of AI
Universal’s open letter was not just about compensation. They also called out issues to do with artist health and wellbeing.
One issue was AI-generated recordings on the platform, saying that TikTok are allegedly “developing tools to enable, promote and encourage AI music creation.”
They claim the social media company is “demanding a contractual right which would allow this content to massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists, in a move that is nothing short of sponsoring artist replacement by AI.”
3. Online Safety
Universal suggest that TikTok has not been on the front foot in handling problematic artist content (including NSFW AI deepfakes of artists).
They say the only means they have as a label to handle this is “through the monumentally cumbersome and inefficient process which equates to the digital equivalent of ‘Whack-a-Mole’.”
“But when we proposed that TikTok takes similar steps as our other platform partners to try to address these issues, it responded first with indifference, and then with intimidation,” they claim.
Universal Claims TikTok ‘Bullied’ And ‘Intimidated’ Them
The furious letter from Universal Music Group claims that TikTok “attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value”.
“How did it try to intimidate us? By selectively removing the music of certain of our developing artists, while keeping on the platform our audience-driving global stars.
“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,” the letter continues.
How Do We Discover Music
The issue at the crux of the matter is how people discover music these days. While previously word of mouth, mix tapes, festivals and even platforms like YouTube and Spotify helped new artists get discovered. TikTok has done so on an exponential scale.
Triple J’s ‘Hottest 100’ is a great example of this over the years. In 2020, TikTok famous ‘WAP’ by Cardi B, featuring Megan Thee Stallion reached number six on the list. Other remixes that went viral on that year also placed in the top 20. In 2022, Eliza Rose’s ‘B.O.T.A’ made second spot, while Steve Lacy’s ‘Bad Habit’ placed fourth, both having found major success on the platform. In 2023, Doja Cat’s TikTok viral ‘Paint The Town Red’ won the whole competition, controversially beating Australian artist G-Flip. Raye’s viral ‘Prada’ placed fifth.
There’s no denying that Universal’s decision to take their artists off the platform will impact their ability to find viral success. It’s something they’re aware of.
“We recognize the challenges that TikTok’s actions will cause, and do not underestimate what this will mean to our artists and their fans who, unfortunately, will be among those subjected to the near-term consequences of TikTok’s unwillingness to strike anything close to a market-rate deal and meaningfully address its obligations as a social platform,” they say.
“But we have an overriding responsibility to our artists to fight for a new agreement under which they are appropriately compensated for their work, on a platform that respects human creativity, in an environment that is safe for all, and effectively moderated.”
TikTok have denied Universal’s claims.
Read Universal Music Group’s open letter in full below:
Our core mission is simple: to help our artists and songwriters attain their greatest creative and commercial potential. To achieve these goals, our teams employ their expertise and passion to strike deals with partners all around the world, partners who take seriously their responsibilities to fairly compensate our artists and songwriters and treat the user experience with respect.
One of those partners is TikTok, an increasingly influential platform with powerful technology and a massive worldwide user base. As with many other platforms with whom we partner, TikTok’s success as one of the world’s largest social platforms has been built in large part on the music created by our artists and songwriters. Its senior executives proudly state publicly that “music is at the heart of the TikTok experience” and our analysis confirms that the majority of content on TikTok contains music, more than any other major social platform.
The terms of our relationship with TikTok are set by contract, which expires January 31, 2024. In our contract renewal discussions, we have been pressing them 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.
We have been working to address these and related issues with our other platform partners. For example, our Artist-Centric initiative is designed to update streaming’s remuneration model and better reward artists for the value they deliver to platforms. In the months since its inception, we’re proud that this initiative has been received so positively and taken up by a range of partners, including the largest music platform in the world. We’ve also moved aggressively to embrace the promise of AI while fighting to ensure artists’ rights and interests are protected now and far into the future. In addition, we’ve engaged a number of our platform partners to try to drive positive change for their users and by extension, our artists, by addressing online safety issues, and we are recognized as the industry leader in focusing on music’s broader impact on health and wellness.
With respect to the issue of artist and songwriter compensation, TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay. Today, as an indication of how little TikTok compensates artists and songwriters, despite its massive and growing user base, rapidly rising advertising revenue and increasing reliance on music-based content, TikTok accounts for only about 1% of our total revenue.
Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music.
On AI, TikTok is allowing the platform to be flooded with AI-generated recordings—as well as developing tools to enable, promote and encourage AI music creation on the platform itself – and then demanding a contractual right which would allow this content to massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists, in a move that is nothing short of sponsoring artist replacement by AI.
Further, TikTok makes little effort to deal with the vast amounts of content on its platform that infringe our artists’ music and it has offered no meaningful solutions to the rising tide of content adjacency issues, let alone the tidal wave of hate speech, bigotry, bullying and harassment on the platform. The only means available to seek the removal of infringing or problematic content (such as pornographic deepfakes of artists) is through the monumentally cumbersome and inefficient process which equates to the digital equivalent of “Whack-a-Mole.”
But when we proposed that TikTok takes similar steps as our other platform partners to try to address these issues, it responded first with indifference, and then with intimidation.
As our negotiations continued, TikTok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth. How did it try to intimidate us? By selectively removing the music of certain of our developing artists, while keeping on the platform our audience-driving global stars.
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.
We will never do that.
We will always fight for our artists and songwriters and stand up for the creative and commercial value of music.
We recognize the challenges that TikTok’s actions will cause, and do not underestimate what this will mean to our artists and their fans who, unfortunately, will be among those subjected to the near-term consequences of TikTok’s unwillingness to strike anything close to a market-rate deal and meaningfully address its obligations as a social platform. But we have an overriding responsibility to our artists to fight for a new agreement under which they are appropriately compensated for their work, on a platform that respects human creativity, in an environment that is safe for all, and effectively moderated.
We honor our responsibilities with the utmost seriousness. Intimidation and threats will never cause us to shirk those responsibilities.
