An audio ghostland: Universal Music Group pulls their music off TikTok

TikTok is going to get a fair bit quieter over the next little while, because as of yesterday morning, songs by artists signed under Universal Music Group are no longer available in TikTok's music library. Songs by some of the biggest musicians in the world — including Taylor Swift, Drake, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd and recent favourite, Sophie Ellis-Bextor — are no longer available to be used by creators.

Universal has accused TikTok of "bullying" and not paying its artists a fair rate, saying TikTok wanted to pay a "fraction" of the rates other social media platforms are offering for access to its vast catalogue. 

TikTok hit back and said Universal was presenting a "false narrative and rhetoric."

In an open letter, which was addressed to "the artist and songwriter community," Universal claims TikTok "is ultimately trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music"

Universal Music Group owns about a third of the world's music, so this decision will have major repercussions.

Culture writers Sarah-Tai Black, Niko Stratis and Justin Curto join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to talk about what Universal's decision means for the future of content creation on TikTok 

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, plus conversations on the diss tracks between Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj and how Elmo became the internet's therapist for a day, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast on your favourite podcast player.

LISTEN | Today's episode on YouTube:

Elamin: Justin, I'm going to start with you on this one. Universal is the biggest music label in the world. We're talking Taylor Swift, we're talking Drake, we're talking Ariana Grande, we're talking The Weeknd. I could keep going on and on. Can you tell us what's changed on TikTok and why Universal pulled the music from the app? 

Justin: So, as of right now, if you go on TikTok and try to make a "Swifttok" video, you cannot put a Taylor Swift song in there. But not only will the app not let you do that, it's taking all these old TikToks that may have been set to music by Universal's artists. And now those don't have any music either. That's made a lot of stans and TikTokers very confused and mad. And this is happening because Universal a few days ago made this statement that was talking about its ongoing negotiations over licensing music to TikTok, and pretty much said that TikTok wasn't willing to concede on three key issues. 

Those being: payment for using Universal music on TikTok. That's the big one. And then AI protections, which TikTok has some, but Universal doesn't feel comfortable with the existing levels. And [lastly], safety on TikTok. And that's both in terms of artists safety and in terms of music that might be near unsafe content on TikTok. 

Elamin: Sarah-Tai, I have to say, if I hypothetically made a thirst trap TikTok to Dangerous Woman by Ariana Grande, now it just looks weird because there's no music there. The feed is looking wild and is looking different. What have you noticed that is different on your TikTok feed? 

Sarah-Tai: I've mostly noticed silent TikToks, which are just a little bit annoying if you're ready to experience a sound to happen and it doesn't. Definitely a neurodivergent thing where I'm irritated that the thing I'm expecting doesn't happen. It's a bit like an audio ghostland. Like a little cemetery of dances.

Elamin: Niko, how do you think this decision is going to change things for artists whose music was previously available on TikTok. The people that we already mentioned up top, but also everybody else because Universal is the biggest label around?

Niko: I mean, it's going to be harder than ever for artists to have their viral moments. This is Universal Music Group. Like, we talk a lot about Universal Music as a singular label. But UMG owns so many labels, not just the big ones but smaller ones. 

The headlines are obviously going to be the bigger names, but this is also going to affect a lot of other smaller artists at smaller labels. They've got Geffen, they've got all these other imprints that are underneath the UMG umbrella. So it's going to have this wide reaching effect on a lot more people than I think we necessarily realise.

Elamin: Justin I got to ask you, Universal's accused TikTok of bullying in this negotiation, TikTok has said, "Universal is trying to spread a bit of a false narrative here." Do you think they're going to figure this out, or do you think we're going to see other labels go as well?

Justin: I'm expecting this to drag out a little bit. There was a new Universal statement where they said TikTok's views around compensation are woefully outdated. So they're continuing to slide these things back and forth. And then also we have Warner, who negotiated something with TikTok last year. But Sony Music, as far as we know, is still in negotiations with TikTok. And their chair has also said that he is looking at payment as a big issue. So I think this opens the door now for more labels to take the stand against Tiktok.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Amelia Eqbal