Universal Music Group, the one who handles music releases by some of the biggest artists in the world including but not limited to Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Ariana Grande, Adele, Harry Styles, and The Weeknd, threatening to pull out their artists' music from TikTok.
"The companies have not agreed to terms for a new agreement and upon expiration of the current agreement, Universal Music Group, including Universal Music Publishing Group, will cease licensing content to TikTok and TikTok Music services," UMG wrote in their statement.
According to reports, UMG's licensing agreement with TikTok is set to expire on Jan. 31, and one of the issues concerning their spat has something to do with Artificial Intelligence or AI.
"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 statement read.
Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, More Under Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group labels include music from Swift, Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, Justin Bieber, U2, Coldplay Elton John, Drake, SZA, and more which made netizens alarmed at the thought of losing music from these artists on the platform.
"I'm sure TikTok will step up and fix it, they can't afford to lose all those artists' music, like they just can't."
"Terrible business decision lol. TikTok is free advertising."
However, there were some who expressed their support for the pull-out. "The thing is most of these artists don't even need TikTok tho! They can all survive without the platform tbh! These artists can chart high asf without TikTok! TikTok just gives them the push they need and it's fun for fans! Trust me when I say this ain't gone do no harm."
"Organic hits finally making a comeback."
"As our negotiations continued, TikTok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth," UMG added in their statement.
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TikTok Artists Get Famous
There is no denying that several songs that peaked on the music charts were particularly due to it being used as sounds on TikTok, and several artists also earned their well-deserved break due to the platform.
Olivia Rodrigo released a snippet of her hit debut single "Drivers License" on TikTok, which propelled her music career, and the same happened with Gayle and Tate McRae.
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