Universal Music Group are BEEFING hard with TikTok, deciding to pull all of their artists’ music after failing to reach a deal with the platform.
Universal is the powerhouse behind heaps of our favourite stars including Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and Harry Styles, making up a total of 78,000 albums available for use within the app.
But they’re all about to chuck deuces after today - Feb, 1 (NZT) - because Universal wants its artists to get the proper cha-ching they deserve when their tunes grace our FYPs.
They claim TikTok's proposed agreements didn’t meet their “responsibilities” as a managing company.
In a heated open letter, Universal spilled the tea, accusing TikTok of “bullying”.
“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,” they wrote.
Universal added: “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. We will never do that.”
TikTok wasn’t taking a back seat though, clapping back: "It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put their greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.”
"Despite Universal's false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users that serves as a free promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent," they continued.
No need to worry about our faves musos though, they’ll be just fine.
TikTok only accounts for about 1% of Universal's total revenue. And being worth a whopping USD $55 billion, we’re sure it won’t make too much of a dent in their pockets.
It does suck for all the TikTokers who won’t be able to add the music they love to their content.
How the heck are we gonna enjoy seeing all the Eras tour GRWM and fit checks without hearing the sweet tones of the KWEEN T-Swift?!?
