UMG pulls artists music from TikTok

Julia Sitnick, Eastside Sports Editor • February 6, 2024

Universal Music Group requires right holders of songs of which UMG has rights to, to not be making money through TikTok therefore removing them from the platform.

February 1, 2024, Universal Music Group (UMG) pulled several artists’ songs off of TikTok. Some big names like Taylor Swift, Drake, Lana Del Rey, and several others are affected by this. UMG’s reasoning for taking away the music from TikTok is that they did not think they were being paid enough for TikTok. When the licensing agreement between UMG and TikTok expired, UMG decided to remove the artists’ music from TikTok who signed with them.

TikTok’s response to this was saying that UMG is selfish and cares more about themselves than their artists and fans. Countering that, UMG has said that TikTok does not pay their artists a fair amount of money. UMG also states that Artificial Intelligence (AI) was put into consideration and online safety for TikTok users.

Some artists signed to UMG said that they are not discouraged and know that there have been music careers before TikTok existed. It is also noted that this banning is beneficial to new artists to become popular. Noah Kahan said, “I won’t be able to promote my music on TikTok anymore. But, luckily, I’m not a TikTok artist, right?”

The one billion active TikTok users will be experiencing these changes. Some users are making videos with sounds from a few years ago as a joke to having a limited choice. Also making a joke using the song “American Pie” by saying “the day the music died”. The new ban on these artists’ music has also eliminated many trends on TikTok from happening such as Lana Del Rey’s “Let The Light In”.

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Since the audience that is present at TikTok holds so much power in their careers, getting their music pulled off of TikTok is definitely not ideal. For example, a 15-second video on TikTok that creates a trend opens an artist up to so many opportunities. These artists however are resilient and are going to figure out a way to make this all work.

UMG has said that the revenue they make from TikTok only makes up 1% of their total revenue. Nonetheless, TikTok is an amazing source for an artist to get their music known. These artists will be successful with or without TikTok like they have been before, but they may be working on getting their music back on it.