UMG to remove its artists’ music from TikTok

Accusing the platform of failing to protect its artists from AI and copyright infringement.

Hits from Bad Gyal, Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and other artists owned by Universal Music Group will disappear from TikTok in the coming days after breaking their working relationship due to disagreements in the licensing agreement.

In a tart letter, UMG makes the accusations public, claiming that the entertainment app offered to pay its artists and songwriters “a fee that is a fraction of that paid by similarly situated major social platforms” and asserting that TikTok only accounts for 1% of the label’s revenue. Furthermore, it denounces the lack of initiatives to combat AI-generated tracks and that it even “encourages the development of tools that enable, promote and disseminate the creation of AI music on the platform itself”. In return, it demands “a contractual right that allows this content to massively dilute the copyright pool for human artists”.

TikTok, for its part, has issued a brief statement denouncing UMG for “putting its own greed above the interests of its artists and songwriters, and walking away from the powerful support of a platform with over a billion users that serves as a free vehicle for the promotion and discovery of their talent”.

And speaking of music news… Taylor Swift and Drake were the artists who sold the most records in 2023.