TikTok videos with Taylor Swift sounds have been muted until further notice, and she's not the only one/GettyImages, Johnny Nunez/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Last week, Universal Music Group, which represents famous artists such as Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Bad Bunny and Drake, announced that it would no longer allow its music to be used on TikTok, after the negotiations on renewing the contract between the two companies reached an impasse.
As a result, starting Thursday, a huge collection of popular songs disappeared from the social media platform's library and millions of videos that used them became mute overnight.
This is how it looks:
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How did we even get here?
Universal Music Group is the largest record company in the history of the music industry.
As part of the agreement that came to an end, the company gave a license to TikTok users to use sound clips from the songs of the artists who work with it in their videos, and to enjoy increased exposure.
However, TikTok users who logged into the platform as of Thursday discovered that they could no longer search for many popular songs — including music by Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and more — under the "Sounds" tab, which is used to select background music for creators' videos. content on the platform.
In addition to users no longer having the option to add these songs to the next dance challenge or any other content, past videos featuring Universal-licensed music have also been scrubbed and had their sounds removed.
A Universal spokesperson said that the choice of whether to mute the videos or remove them entirely is in Tiktok's hands, but judging by the amount of silent dances running on the platform in recent days, Tiktok seems to have chosen the first option.
As for new music, artists will not be able to post the audio of their Universal-licensed songs on TikTok.
If the music is licensed by Universal, it should be muted, the spokesman said — noting that the company would protect its copyright.
Full removal will likely be a long process, and it may take several days for TikTok users to see the full effects.
It is also important to note that music licensing is a complicated business and artists often have different songs that go through different labels.
While Universal audio tracks will be removed, songs exclusively licensed by other music giants such as Warner and Sony will remain on the platform as usual.
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After the old agreement between the two companies reached its expiration date, representatives of Universal and TikTok convened a meeting in order to hold negotiations for the continuation of the contract between them, however, despite the efforts to reach agreements, this was not successful and the companies were left without a renewed contract.
In a letter addressed to artists and songwriters on Tuesday, Universal wrote that it pressed TikTok on three issues: "adequate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protection of human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok users."
Universal said TikTok offered to pay its artists and songwriters at a lower rate than other major social platforms, adding that TikTok only accounts for 1% of its total revenue.
In addition, the music giant opposes TikTok's efforts to promote artificial intelligence music, which Universal says poses a risk to human artists, and the platform's history with what it classifies as hate speech, bigotry, bullying and harassment.
TikTok denied the claims and said the agreements with Universal are the same as those reached with any other label and publisher.
"It is sad and disappointing that Universal put their greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters," TikTok said.
Will it last?
Despite the expiration of the licensing deal, experts point out that the negotiations between Universal and TikTok are not over yet, as the cooperation is very beneficial to both parties.
A protest by the artists, fans and many content creators on TikTok is expected to put additional pressure on the two companies to reach an agreement soon.
And although no one is worried about Taylor Swift's salary, experts fear that it will be the new and lesser-known artists who work with Universal who will be hurt by the move.
This isn't the first time a record company has gone head to head with a social media company over licensing terms.
In late 2008, Warner Music Group pulled all of its music from YouTube, saying the payments it received from the video-sharing site did not fairly compensate its label, artists or songwriters.
Only after reaching a new agreement with YouTube, several months later, did Warner agree to return to the platform the songs and clips it had removed.
Until the two are completed, the current task of content creators and publishers on the platform is to decide what to do with all those silent videos, some of which brought significant exposure and contributed greatly to their virality.
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