Universal Music Group and TikTok's months-long standoff over royalty payments and AI policies has finally come to an end, at least for now, with the companies announcing a deal to bring the labels' music back to the platform. .
As part of the agreement, the companies said they will provide “improved compensation for UMG's songwriters and artists, new promotion and engagement opportunities for their recordings and songs, and industry-leading protections for generative AI.”
UMG's music will soon return to the platform, and the companies will work together to enable “new monetization opportunities leveraging TikTok's growing e-commerce capabilities” to support UMG's artists across genres and geographies around the world. We plan to cooperate with the campaign to
“This new chapter in our relationship with TikTok focuses on the value of music, the primacy of human artistry, and the well-being of the creative community,” said Lucien Grainge, Chairman and CEO of UMG. “There is,” he said. “We look forward to working with the team at TikTok to drive innovation in fan engagement while elevating the interest of artists and songwriters and monetizing social music.”
TikTok CEO Xu Chu added: “Music is an integral part of the TikTok ecosystem, and we are pleased to have found a path forward with Universal Music Group.” added. We are committed to working together to drive the value, discovery, and promotion of all of UMG's amazing artists and songwriters, deepening their ability to grow, connect, and engage with the TikTok community . ”
The ban, which began in February, almost completely cut off all music owned, distributed and published by the company on the platform. The video was still there, but the music was muted. However, there was no shortage of artists breaking the ban, both official (Taylor Swift, apparently UMG-sanctioned promotion for her new album “The Tortured Poets Department”) and unofficial (among many others). In both. There is no doubt that the reason for UMG's ban is an attempt to fight for greater compensation and protection of intellectual property for artists, and of course the noble cause of protecting their own interests, but it is also a There is no doubt that this has caused significant confusion for artists. 'Career.
Over the past five years, TikTok has been the most influential means of music discovery and promotion, with music companies demanding that artists be active on the platform or go “viral,” with some spending their own money to do so. Some companies are starting to do so. So. But in February, UMG artists suddenly found their efforts muted by their company. A month later, the writer's song, which was signed to Universal's publishing division, met a similar fate.
UMG's ban appears to have had little real impact on TikTok aside from some bad press, but of course the company now has much bigger prey. A bill banning the app was signed into law by President Biden on April 24th. U.S. unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance sells its ownership interest. TikTok said it plans to file a lawsuit challenging the new U.S. law on First Amendment grounds. If that fails, the app could be outlawed in the United States as early as January 2025. Perhaps a combination of the larger struggles on the horizon for TikTok and UMG's shaky support for the move (not to mention the obvious exception to Swift) led to both. Businesses need to cut their losses and exit.
UMG addressed the situation extensively in a letter it issued to artists on January 30th, informing them of the impending ban. “TikTok has made little effort to address the vast amount of content on its platform that infringes on artists' music, and has faced growing content adjacency issues, let alone a tsunami of hate speech, bigotry, and bullying.” and harassment on the platform,” it reads in part. “The only means available to seek the removal of infringing or problematic content (such as an artist's pornographic deepfakes) is to go through a very cumbersome and inefficient process that amounts to a digital version of 'whack-a-mole.' …We will always fight for artists and songwriters and stand up for the creative and commercial value of music.”
In any case, the ban was difficult to enforce. Unlike streaming services, rights holders (usually record labels) are not the only ones who can upload music to the platform. Because it's available to virtually anyone and the app is controlled by his TikTok, labels and other rights holders can't do anything about violations other than issuing takedown notices or other legal notices. you can't. Additionally, TikTok's detection software can be circumvented by speeding up, slowing down, or otherwise altering some songs, and many users do this when including music in their posts. are doing. It is also possible that some of the people involved turned a blind eye to the violation.
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