After To do so, earlier this week, Universal Music Group (UMG) began pulling the catalogs of the artists it represents, including Taylor Swift, Drake, Billie Eilish, The Weeknd and others. There is no longer follows listed in the profiles of some of the world's most notable artists.
Additionally, UMG music featured in TikTok videos will now be muted, forcing creators to replace tracks with options from other music labels. It won't be easy for many of them, considering the large number of lip-sync videos littering the social network.
This is a drastic move by Universal, given that TikTok is a valuable marketing platform for its artists. However, UMG also has some clout, given that it is the biggest label in the world with some of the most popular artists. Either way, it's a big blow for both creators and users of the platform.
Universal previously said TikTok wanted to pay a “fraction” of the rate paid by other social media sites: “As our negotiations continued, TikTok attempted to intimidate us into accepting a lower value deal. to the previous agreement, much lower than that of the fair market. value and does not reflect their exponential growth.
In response, TikTok said it was a valuable marketing tool for artists and publishers. “Despite Universal's false talk and rhetoric, the fact is that they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with over a billion users that serves as a free vehicle for promotion and discovery of their talents.”