KUALA LUMPUR – The world’s biggest music company, Universal Music Group, has pulled the brakes on TikTok and TikTok Music as the two companies have not agreed to new terms as the content licence expires today.
Home to Taylor Swift, BTS, Billie Eilish, and The Weeknd, among others, Universal Music claimed that TikTok is trying to build a music-based business without paying fair value to creators.
In an open letter, the music label slammed TikTok for its “indifference and intimidation” when responding to talks on copyright infringement, pornographic deep fakes of artists, and the tidal wave of hate speech, bigotry, bullying and harassment.
“As our negotiations continued, TikTok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth.
“How did it try to intimidate us? By selectively removing the music of certain of our developing artists while keeping on the platform our audience-driving global stars.
“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.”
Universal Music added that TikTok proposed paying artists and songwriters at a fraction of the rate that other major social platforms pay, and TikTok only accounts for about 1% of the label’s total revenue.
“In our contract renewal discussions, we have been pressing them on three critical issues – appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users.”
Universal Music Group will be releasing its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2023, on February 28, after that day’s close of the Euronext market. – January 31, 2024