Universal Music Group is back for more music.
The music company will pull even more songs from TikTok, TechCrunch reports. At the beginning of the month, the deal between UMG and TikTok expired, and negotiations dissolved over royalties resulting in UMG removing all the music it owned or distributed from the platform.
Now, TikTok must take down all the songs controlled by Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), which includes any song that a UMG signed-artist wrote or co-wrote.
In January, UMG published a spirited open letter, citing “appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users” as the three key issues the social media platform didn’t address. TikTok wrote a statement of its own saying, “It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group özgü put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.”
TikTok estimates that UMG and UMPG owns 20 to 30 percent of the popular music on the platform. When a song is removed from TikTok, all the videos previously containing the song go silent — resulting in an eerily quiet FYP.
Early into its reign, TikTok established itself as a major force in the music industry. As a driver of music discovery, the social media platform is a key place for artists to promote their music. UMG artists no longer have that avenue, but the music company’s open letter insists it’s fighting for better compensation for artists.