Universal and TikTok make peace: artists ready to return to the social network

The ranks of Universal artists – people of the caliber of Taylor Swift, Drake, Adele or Billie Eilish – are preparing to bring their music back to TikTok: the reinstatement is expected because the two parties have reached a new licensing agreement, to close a three month tug of war.

In fact, since January the music giant had made it known that it had not agreed new terms with the company under the umbrella of the Chinese ByteDance and that the licenses would thus cease. Today the two parties instead made it known that they are “working expeditiously to return to TikTok, in due course, the music of artists represented by Universal Music Group and songwriters represented by Universal Music Publishing Group”.

The fracture had occurred in three points, recalls theAp: first of all, obviously, the artists’ compensation. But the case of the protection of performers from artificial intelligence and also the protection of the rights of social media users had also been raised.

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edited by the Spettacoli editorial team

05 March 2024

TikTok had opposed the accusations, saying that there had been no problems whatsoever with other labels, but still had to come to terms: CEO Shou Chew today said in a statement that “we are committed to working together to create value, discover and promote all of UMG’s amazing artists and songwriters and deepen their ability to grow, connect and engage with the TikTok community.” In recent times, Swift had brought her pieces back to the platform for the launch of the new album.

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Together, the two parties will explore new forms of music monetization as TikTok works to remove fraudulent AI-generated content from its platform.

Which is however also fundamental for artists. Reuters estimates that “about a quarter of US consumers say they listen to songs they’ve heard on TikTok,” as the music industry analyst reports Tatiana Cirisano of Midia.

Universal Music, however, has complained that its artists and songwriters are paid only a fraction of what they receive from other major social media platforms. The music label says TikTok represents 1% of its annual revenue or about $110 million in 2023. According to Midia, however, YouTube has paid the music industry $1.8 billion for user-generated content in 12 months ending June 2022.