As of Jan. 31 of this year, Universal Music Group (UMG)—home to some of the largest global artists including Drake, Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny—have removed all of their songs from TikTok.
This came after TikTok and UMG could not settle on a music rights renewal deal, effectively canceling TikTok’s license to use any music owned by UMG, stripping the app of some of the largest songs and most widely used artists on the platform.
One of the most major hits being taken by this music makeover is that many of the famous artists who are under the UMGlabel can no longer use TikTok to promote their latest singles or albums. One notable example is Noah Kahan, who just recently released his new album “Stick Season: Forever,” and openly stated that he will be moving to Instagram stories to promote his new music because he cannot use his new releases on TikTok any longer. The removal of popular music is most likely going to be a trend many TikTok users see as more and more UMG artists release their music, like superstar Taylor Swift who will be releasing her new album “The Tortured Poets Department” this April.
The inability to use one of the world’s largest social media platforms to promote new music will harm the success of many UMG artists, especially smaller artists under the label.
In addition, many TikTok creators will find it hard to participate in many famous trends, or edits that were once so easy to take part in and get more likes, views and followers from. Songs from UMG artists such as Bad Bunny, Drake and Olivia Rodrigo are all widely used by many TikTok creators when participating in dance trends, challenges, vlogs and by many small business owners to boost their platforms, and be seen by more TikTok users as the songs they used were so widely popular and shown on many users For You Pages.
Now with this sweep of any UMG music, many creators are having to use royalty free or less popular music in their videos, having their videos muted, or possibly taken down because of the music they are using. This hurts creators who are financially dependent on their TikTok platforms and rely on being seen by more and more users who find their pages through popular songs and trends.
Some TikTok creators have even responded to this sweep by trying to reupload many UMG songs to TikTok by themselves, and it is still unclear how TikTok or UMG will handle this issue.
