Universal Musicthe major record company that represents some of the biggest names in international music (Taylor Swift, for example) has announced the end of its collaboration with Bytedancethe Chinese company that owns TikTok.
Songs from Universal Music artists will no longer be available on TikTok
Universal Music’s decision was communicated with a note on its official website, explaining the reasons for the breakup. The agreement between the two parties had expired and, according to the label, there are no conditions to renew it. Universal Music accuses TikTok of failing to offer fair remuneration for the use of his musicof not having guaranteed adequate content moderation and to have favored the diffusion of music generated with artificial intelligence. A practice, the latter, which undermines the creativity and rights of artists.
This is a case that is very reminiscent of the one involving the SIAE and Meta in Italywith the difference that this time the removal of the library has global reach and enormous impact. TikTok will have to give up music from Universal Music, which includes artists like Lady Gaga, Drake, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and many others. This means that TikTok videos will no longer be able to use their songs as background musicand the already existing videos containing them they will be silenced.
Below is an excerpt from Universal Music’s announcement:
Our core mission is simple: to help our artists and songwriters reach their maximum creative and commercial potential. To achieve these goals, our teams use their experience and passion to partner with partners around the world, partners who take seriously their responsibilities to fairly compensate our artists and songwriters and treat user experience with respect .
One such partner is TikTok, an increasingly influential platform with powerful technology and a large user base around the world. Like many other platforms we partner with, TikTok’s success as one of the largest social platforms in the world relies heavily on the music created by our artists and songwriters. Its senior executives proudly publicly state that “music is at the heart of the TikTok experience,” and our analysis confirms that the majority of content on TikTok contains music, more than any other major social platform.
The terms of our relationship with TikTok are set forth in a contract, which expires on January 31, 2024. During contract renewal discussions, we pressed them on three critical issues: appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protection of human artists from the harmful effects of artificial intelligence and online safety for TikTok users.
We have been working to address these and related issues with our other platform partners. For example, our Artist-Centric initiative is designed to update the streaming compensation model and better reward artists for the value they provide to platforms. In the last few months since its creation, we are proud that this initiative has been so positively received and adopted by a number of partners, including the largest music platform in the world. We have also moved aggressively to embrace the potential of artificial intelligence, while fighting to secure the rights and interests of artists, now and in the future. Additionally, we have engaged several platform partners to try to drive positive change for their users and, in turn, our artists, by addressing issues related to online safety, and are recognized as an industry leader in focusing on the broader impact of music on health and well-being.
Regarding the issue of artist and songwriter compensation, TikTok has proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of what similar social platforms pay. Today, as an indication of how little TikTok compensates artists and songwriters, despite its huge and growing user base, rapidly growing advertising revenues, and growing reliance on music-based content, TikTok only accounts for about 1% of our total proceeds.
Ultimately, TikTok is trying to build a business based on music, without paying fair value for the music.
With respect to AI, TikTok allows the platform to be flooded with AI-generated recordings and is developing tools to enable, promote and encourage AI-driven music creation on the platform itself, then seeking a contractual right that would allow to this content of massively diluting the royalty pool for human artists, in a gesture that is nothing more than the support of the replacement of artists by artificial intelligence.
Additionally, TikTok makes little effort to manage the vast amounts of content on its platform that infringes on our artists’ music and has offered no meaningful solutions to the rise of content adjacency issues, much less the wave of hate speech. hatred, bigotry, bullying and harassment on the platform. The only means available to request removal of infringing or problematic content (such as pornographic deepfakes of artists) is through an extremely complicated and inefficient process that amounts to digital “Whack-a-Mole.”
But when we proposed that TikTok take steps similar to our other platform partners to try to address these issues, it responded first with indifference and then with intimidation.
As our negotiations continued, TikTok tried to force us to accept a deal worth less than the previous one, far below market value and not reflected by their exponential growth. How did he try to intimidate us? Selectively removing music from some of our emerging artists, keeping global stars who appeal to audiences on the platform.
TikTok’s tactics are obvious: using the power of its platform to harm vulnerable artists and trying to intimidate us into giving into a bad deal that devalues music and penalizes artists and songwriters, as well as their fans.
We will never do this.
We will always fight for our artists and songwriters and defend the creative and commercial value of music.
We recognize the challenges that TikTok’s actions will cause and do not underestimate what this will mean for our artists and their fans who, unfortunately, will be among those who will suffer the short-term consequences of TikTok’s failure to strike a deal close to a fee market and meaningfully address its obligations as a social platform. But we have an overriding responsibility to our artists to fight for a new agreement in which they are adequately compensated for their work, on a platform that respects human creativity, in an environment that is safe for all and moderated effectively.
We honor our responsibilities with the utmost seriousness. Intimidation and threats will never make us neglect these responsibilities.
Bytedance’s reply is decidedly drier:
It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has placed its own greed above the interests of its artists and songwriters. Despite Universal’s false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is that they have chosen to back away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users, which serves as a free vehicle for the promotion and discovery of their talent. TikTok has managed to reach artist-first deals with every other record label and publisher. It is clear that Universal’s selfish actions are not in the best interests of the artists, songwriters, and fans.
Starting today, TikTok will begin the process of removing Universal songs from its library.
