If you scroll through TikTok, videos by major artists like Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and Mariah Carey are silent. That’s because Universal Music Group (UMG) — the world’s largest music company – pulled its catalog from TikTok last month. The two sides are in bitter contract negotiations fueled by AI concerns, viewership numbers, and royalty payments.
The issue surrounds how much TikTok must pay to have Universal’s vast music catalog, explains Anne Steele, a Wall Street Journal reporter covering the music business.
“Some of the biggest artists in the world licensed to its platform so that its users can stitch snippets of songs into their dance and meme videos. So TikTok has been paying out some amount,” Steele says. “As it has grown in revenue and users as this large global company, Universal is saying, ‘It is now time for you to be paying market rate.’”
Some artists are finding ways to get around the music block. Gwen Stefani is signed with Interscope, a record label owned by UMG, and her new song Purple Irises was supposed to be released under it. Due to the feud, the song debuted on Blake Shelton’s record label instead. The duet features both singers, and the pivot allows for the song’s use on TikTok. Others, like Kristin Chenoweth and Sheryl Crow, are getting around the block by singing acapella versions of their songs.
Emerging artists are feeling the impact of the UMG/TikTok feud the most, Steele points out. It’s a far cry from the experience of established singers like Stefani or Ariana Grande — who recently dropped a track featuring Mariah Carey —who already have fan bases that will be able to find their music.
@mariahcarey Ari 🔥 Mimi 🔥 yes, and, remix #outnow ♬ original sound - Mariah Carey
“The folks that are struggling the most with that are these emerging artists who are still trying to find fans. They're trying to get songs to go viral or just find a bit of an audience to get them off the ground,” she explains.