Universal Music Group has threatened to pull its music from TikTok in a royalty dispute, a move that would prevent the platform’s more than one billion users from streaming a vast catalog of songs by Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, and other artists. On Tuesday, Universal issued a statement titled “An Open Letter to the Artist and Songwriter Community: Why We Must End TikTok,” in which it said its licensing agreement with the platform expires on Wednesday.
One of the issues Universal has focused on in its “contract renewal discussions” with the video’s platform is “adequate compensation” for its artists and songwriters, the company said. The Double T app allows its users to add music to their videos.
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TikTok, owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, had proposed paying a “fraction” of the fee that similarly sized social media platforms pay, Universal said. Like other music companies, Universal charges royalty fees when its songs are played on social media platforms. It also has music by Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish, J Balvin, and Amy Winehouse.
The reel´s app responded by saying Universal was promoting “a false narrative and rhetoric” and accused the company of putting “its greed before the interests of its artists and songwriters.”
“They have decided to move away from the strong support of a platform with well over a billion users, which serves as a free promotion and discovery vehicle for their talent,” the double t app said in a statement.
Universal Launches Against TikTok
In its open letter, Universal accused the reel’s app of trying to build a business based on music, without paying a fair value for the material. “As an indication of how little Tiktok compensates artists and songwriters, despite its massive and growing user base, rapidly growing advertising revenue, and growing reliance on music-based content, TikTok accounts for only about 1% of our revenue.” Total revenue”.
Universal also noted that it had been pressuring the reel’s app to better protect musicians from “the harmful effects” of artificial intelligence to ensure the online safety of the app’s users. The reel’s app is allowing its platform to be “flooded” with AI-generated music and providing tools for users to create their AI-generated recordings, according to Universal.
When these issues are addressed, TikTok has responded with “indifference, and then intimidation,” according to Universal, removing some of its emerging artists from the platform, while keeping music from global stars. In its response, TikTok stated that it had reached “artist-centric” agreements with “all other labels and publishers.”
This story was written in Spanish by Miguel Fernandez in Cultura Colectiva News.
