The Universal Music Group (UMG) is at its breaking point and has recently warned TikTok to end their agreements within 24 hours. This has come to light after TikTok refused to come to terms with Universal Music Group to match the artist compensation and AI. This may lead to the removal of some trending songs of many artists, including Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, and even Murder on the Dancefloor, from the Chinese app.
Universal Music Group May End Their Contract With Tiktok Within The Next 24 Hours!
Universal Music Group has threatened TikTok in an open letter, accusing them of bullying into accepting a deal less than the market value, not reflective of their exponential growth. In the letter, UMG wrote:
TikTok’s tactics are obvious: use its platform power to hurt vulnerable artists and try to intimidate us into conceding to a bad deal that undervalues music and shortchanges artists and songwriters as well as their fans.
We will never do that.
We will always fight for our artists and songwriters and stand up for the creative and commercial value of music.
Universal Music Group is a major music production company that owns the rights to several prominent artists worldwide. The list is limitless, including the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Drake, Sting, the Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Adele, U2, Coldplay, and Post Malone. It is the only record company in history, to own nine of the top ten albums on the Billboard 200 music chart four times simultaneously.
If both corporations fail to reach an agreement, the viral songs of various prominent artists will be withdrawn within 24 hours, or Wednesday. According to Universal Music Group statistics, TikTok accounts for barely 1% of their earnings, revealing how little TikTok rewards artists despite having a massive global user base, rapidly growing, depending on these music-related contents.
TikTok vs UMG is about to be a battle of the year.
I'm SAT. pic.twitter.com/qFyQqclXie
— ayeewill (@yourgirlayedub) January 31, 2024
Universal Music Group has also accused TikTok of utilizing its platform to flood it with AI-generated content. TikTok has introduced its own TikTok music app to compete with Spotify and Apple Music, which allow users to make songs using prompts by incorporating an “AI song” feature into the program. This app is only available in a few countries and is yet to gain widespread popularity.
What Does TikTok Have To Say To All These Allegations?
TikTok is a social media app that has grown in popularity because of its short music-related content. However, this Chinese software has recently been accused of jeopardizing user data security and is currently in several countries, including India, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and many others. TikTok has fiercely replied to the charges of Universal Music Group, accusing them of lying.
Despite Universal’s false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users that serves as a free promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent
