Artists from the label, who promote their work on social media, express outrage over the case.
The short video social network TikTok was forced to remove the songs from the Universal Music Group (UMG), which features artists such as Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, The Weeknd, Olivia Rodrigo, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande and many others, in its audio catalog.
This Wednesday (31), the agreement between the social network and the record label expired and was not renewed due to disagreements between the two. According to UMG, TikTok was not willing to pay the same fee that other sites pay to obtain music. The social network refuted the accusations.
Because of this situation, all videos on the platform that used music from the record company were silenced.
How is this affecting artists and users?
The removal of songs from one of the most used social networks worldwide is already having an impact on some of the label’s artists, who used the platform to promote their works through viral videos. Some artists spoke out about the case.
I can’t shove it down your throat on this app anymore. I’ll probably be fine, right? I’m going to land on my feet, right?, said Noah Kahan in a video posted on TikTok where he expresses the difficulty he is going through promoting his new song.
Artist Cody Fry, who was going viral in China, TikTok’s home country, said that the social network should value music more than it currently does.
Check out the musician’s video:
@codyfrymusic Am i muted yet? #music #musicindustry #universalmusic #umg #thingsyousaid #tiktokmusic #greenscreen original sound – Cody Fry
Frustrated, Cody added that TikTok and UMG should have resolved their differences without affecting the artists’ work.
“I don’t know much about the mechanics of these huge corporate negotiations, but I would be remiss if I didn’t express frustration about how this was handled on my behalf, and I think the artists at Universal, because finding out something like that on the news is very difficult,” commented the musician.
The surprise also affected users who, like artists, were not warned in advance about the case, except for TikTok Shop sellers, who received prior notice to change the sound of some videos. A social media user complained that the video of her dancing at her wedding was silenced because it contained an ABBA song.
According to some users, several publications that were in drafts had their sound removed, but lives posted with the same song were not changed.
The confusion increases due to the outsourcing of Universal, which distributes its music to other record companies, but represents the composers of the works, such as singer Steve Lacy, who has a contract with Sony’s RCA, but is represented by UMG as a composer. Therefore, if Universal wishes to make its departure from TikTok even more abrupt, it can seek legal action on copyright grounds.
At the time of publishing this article (2), unofficial versions, remixes and live performances by Universal artists have not yet been detected by the platform, making it difficult to know whether or not the label plans to remove these versions from the application.
For those who used a Universal song, the solution is to change the audio to another available in the TikTok catalog.
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