It doesn’t look like TikTok and Universal Media Group’s (UMG) song battle is ending anytime soon with the music publisher saying it will remove four million more songs from the social media site. Less than a month ago, thousands of TikToks were muted after UMG blasted the social video platform for not paying fair value for music.
Until recently, there were still some tracks from UMG available on the platform. Now, via Variety, it appears TikTok is combing through a much larger selection of UMG-published songs, and is removing them right before the deadline. The BBC reports that about four million songs could disappear entirely from the platform, on top of the three million that were already wiped earlier this year. The latest wave of wiped-out songs applies to writers, not just artists, signed to the UMG name.
TikTok and UMG’s contract expired at the end of January and with no contract, there’s no way that TikTok and its users can play any Universal-managed music on the platform over videos.
Some of these artists include Taylor Swift, Drake and Lady Gaga.
This move has also led to artists needing to tease their music themselves as separate original audio clips. Noted by MusicAlly, an extended deadline was marked for the end of February for the two companies to reach an agreement. It sure looks like this isn’t happening.
Up to 80 per cent of all music could be wiped off the TikTok platform, as reported by the BBC, but the app reports the figure to be more like 30 per cent.
An audio snippet that would previously list the title of a UMG-published song appears as ‘This Sound Isn’t Available’, now on the platform.
This all sucks in particular for smaller artists, singers like PeachPRC rely on the TikTok platform to foster their community and credit the app with their rise to stardom.
Hopefully, UMG’s music will soon return to TikTok, with a contract both parties can agree upon.
Image: Gizmodo Australia