Music from Drake, Justin Bieber and others vanishes from TikTok as licensing dispute boils over

This article was updated on Feb. 27, 2024, after first being published on Jan. 31, 2024.

Feb. 27 update: TikTok has now begun removing music belonging to Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) from its app. The social platform first removed the music of artists signed to Universal Music Group on Jan. 31, after TikTok and Universal were unable to reach a new licensing agreement, but this new wave of removals will now impact songs written by any songwriter signed on to UMPG. This includes music from Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Mariah Carey, Ice Spice and Metro Boomin. Existing videos that feature songs affected by this change will either need the music removed or muted.

While artists and songwriters may have differing deals in different territories, further complicating matters, a source told Variety that this initial move is focusing on Universal's "Anglo-American" repertoire.   

Universal Music Group (UMG), which represents artists including Taylor Swift, Drake, Adele, Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish, says that it will no longer allow its music on TikTok now that a licensing deal between the two parties has expired.

In a Jan. 30 letter addressed to artists and songwriters, UMG said that it had not agreed to terms of a new deal with TikTok, and plans to stop licensing content from the artists it represents on the social media platform that is owned by ByteDance, as well as TikTok Music services.

The licensing agreement between UMG and TikTok expired on Wednesday, Jan. 31, meaning all of its songs will be removed from the service, a UMG spokesperson confirmed to Reuters. 

In the Jan. 30 letter, UMG said that it had been pressing TikTok on three issues: "appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok's users."

UMG said that TikTok proposed paying its artists and songwriters at a rate that's a fraction of the rate that other major social platforms pay, adding that TikTok makes up only about one per cent of its total revenue.

"Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music," UMG said.

TikTok pushed back against claims by UMG, releasing a statement that said it has reached "artist-first" agreements with every other label and publisher.

"Clearly, Universal's self-serving actions are not in the best interests of artists, songwriters and fans," TikTok said.

Yet Universal Music also called new technology a potential threat to artists and said that TikTok is developing tools to enable, promote and encourage AI music creation. UMG accused the platform of "demanding a contractual right which would allow this content to massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists, in a move that is nothing short of sponsoring artist replacement by AI."

UMG also took issue with what it described as safety issues on TikTok. UMG is unsatisfied with TikTok's efforts to deal with what it says is hate speech, bigotry, bullying and harassment. It said that having troubling content removed from TikTok is a "monumentally cumbersome and inefficient process which equates to the digital equivalent of Whac-a-Mole."

UMG said it proposed that TikTok take steps similar to what some of its other social media platform partners use, but that it was met with indifference at first, and then with intimidation.

"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," UMG said. "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, however said that Universal Music is putting "their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters."

Canadian musicians you won't hear on TikTok anymore

This decision impacts many Canadian artists signed to UMG, including:

• Drake
• Justin Bieber
• Shawn Mendes
• The Weeknd
• Shania Twain
• Jessie Reyez
• Johnny Orlando
• Alessia Cara
• Rezz
• Arkells
• Broken Social Scene
• Feist
• Nav
• Rush
• Pup

Universal Music Canada also represents a roster of up-and-coming artists who have found success on TikTok such as Talk, Lauren Spencer Smith, Rêve, Leith Ross, Josh Ross, Preston Pablo and Nonso Amadi.

Juno-winning singer-songwriter Shawn Desman has been putting more effort into his TikTok presence lately, and posted a video to Instagram detailing how this affects him. (Desman is signed to Wax Records, an imprint label of Universal Music Canada.) 

"I've been working so hard on that platform the last two months, you can see my analytics have shot up so crazy," he explained, showing a screenshot of his increasing reach. "So this is a little bit disappointing. It is such an important tool for us to promote ourselves, our music, our work, our creations." 

Last year, tracks by PartyNextDoor and Justin Bieber were among the most popular Canadian songs on TikTok; Bieber's masters are owned by Universal Music Group and PartyNextDoor is part of the Universal Music Publishing Group.

With files from the Canadian Press.