To date, over 30 American states, Canada, and the European Union have separately banned the app from use on government-owned devices over concerns it could be a security risk. India banned the app nationwide in January 2021, while Taiwan and Afghanistan did the same in 2022.
On Wednesday, March 6, Billboard exclusively reported that The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) license with TikTok is due to expire on April 30, and “do[es] not anticipate that there will be an option to renew or extend the current NMPA licenses or participate in a new license with TikTok through NMPA.”
A day after Universal Music Group threatened to stop licensing its music to TikTok amid a breakdown in deal negotiations, songs from UMG‘s unparalleled stable of artists began vanishing from the social media platform late Wednesday.
The removals started gradually late Wednesday evening. The official versions of UMG-owned recordings such as Taylor Swift‘s “Cruel Summer,” Olivia Rodrigo‘s “Get Him Back,” and Lana Del Rey’s “Let the Light In” were no longer appearing in search results. Meanwhile, videos featuring UMG songs — such as a Kylie Jenner post set to Del Rey’s “Cherry” and a Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson video that was soundtracked to Rick Ross’s “Hustlin'” — were muted. The videos now have a prompt at the bottom noting the sound was removed due to copyright restrictions.
UMG has accused the social media platform of attempting to ‘bully and intimidate’ it into signing a new deal ‘worth less’ than its previous one.
The world’s biggest music company is embroiled in a furious row with TikTok, meaning songs by pop titans including Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and The Beatles could all be wiped from the social media platform within the next 24 hours.
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, allows users to upload short-form videos that are usually soundtracked by licensed music.
A short list of UMG artists whose music is expected to vanish from the platform is Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, Drake, Billie Eilish, Justin Bieber, Adele, Coldplay, J Balvin, Post Malone and Sophie Ellis-Bextor – whose 2001 track ‘Murder On The Dancefloor’ has gone particularly viral through TikTok following the release of Saltburn.
UMG wrote: “In our contract renewal discussions, we have been pressing [TikTok] 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.”
When it comes to concerns over artificial intelligence, UMG claims TikTok “encourages AI music creation on the platform itself” by developing tools to support the cause while “demanding a contractual right which would allow this content to massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists, in a move that is nothing short of sponsoring artist replacement by AI”.
Touching on artist and user safety on the platform, UMG wrote in its letter that “the only means available to seek the removal of infringing or problematic content (such as pornographic deepfakes of artists) is through the monumentally cumbersome and inefficient process which equates to the digital equivalent of ‘Whack-a-Mole’.”
