TikTok, the popular video app, has been a hub for musicians and music lovers alike since it appeared in app stores in 2016. Through the platform , users can lip sync to their favorite songs, create video edits of their favorite films and shows, participate in dance trends, and keep up with new music releases. Music is a fundamental feature of the app. What happens when artists can no longer promote their music with TikTok? What happens when users can no longer engage with popular artists?
Recently, TikTok has removed hundreds of artists’ music from the platform due to a copyright disagreement with Universal Music Group (UMG). UMG is perhaps one of the largest music corporations in the world, working with popular singer-songwriters such as Taylor Swift, Noah Kahan, and Lana Del Rey.
TikTok and UMG previously had a licensing agreement that allowed artists to upload their songs to TikTok, but this agreement expired on January 31st, 2024. According to UMG’s open letter, “In our contract renewal discussions, we have been pressing them on three critical issues—appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users.” The message, titled “An Open Letter to the Artist and Songwriter Community: Why We Must Call Time Out on TikTok” outlines the reasons why TikTok and UMG ended their agreement.
This contract, however, never saw the light of day. Apparently, TikTok failed to address UMG’s concerns and asked UMG to accept a deal that did not reflect the artists’ work, which meant that these artists would not be fairly compensated for their work. “...[W]e have an overriding responsibility to fight for our artists to fight for a new agreement under which they are appropriately compensated for their work,” UMG said.
So, what does TikTok look like now that a large percentage of popular artists’ music is gone? The answer is this: it’s pretty barren, not to mention frustrating for users. If a user previously posted a video to a song by one of UMG’s artists, the video is still visible, but it is now completely silent. A small banner along the bottom of a viewer’s screen reads “Sound removed due to copyright restrictions” and gives users the option to replace the song. This removal also means that users cannot post new videos to popular songs and artists cannot promote new music.
Although UMG intends to protect their artists and ensure that they have a fair deal, UMG’s decision to remove the music of popular artists may be detrimental to the very artists that they are claiming to protect. Since TikTok is a platform that is globally popular, artists — especially smaller ones — sometimes rely on the exposure that TikTok gives them. On TikTok, singers can promote their songs, gain new fans, and keep current fans updated with new releases.“Yeah, I mean, my career is over, for sure,” joked pop singer Conan Gray in an interview with Rolling Stone. “I’m never gonna have a hit song ever again at this rate.”
Conan Gray isn’t the only artist who is struggling with the feud between UMG and TikTok. Some artists who have always promoted their music through TikTok seem to be ambivalent about this recent change, such as folk artist Noah Kahan, who told his fans “I’ll probably be okay, right? I’ll land on my feet, right?...Right?”
When TikTok and UMG did not renew their licensing agreement, the decision detrimentally affected both singer-songwriters and their fans across the app. There is now a limit to what artists can promote and what songs users can post videos too. However, artists deserve to be fairly compensated for their music, so we can only hope that TikTok and UMG reach a new agreement that will protect our beloved artists.