Sound On

On February 1, 2024, the Universal Music Group (UMG) pulled all its music catalog from the social media platform TikTok, leaving many videos soundless. This includes Popular Music artists Taylor Swift, Oliva Rodrigo, Ariana Grande, Drake, and many more.  

What caused the removal? 

The removal was caused by TikTok and UMG failing to agree on a new contract. UMG felt that their artists should be compensated more than they were previously and have more protection than they were being provided with. 

On TikTok, a popular trend currently is to make covers of songs using famous artists’ voices using AI, but this can be incredibly deceiving and dangerous, which is something that UMG recognized and wanted to change. 

Since then, a UMG spokesperson has come out and stated, “Agreements with TikTok have expired because of TikTok’s unwillingness to appropriately compensate artists and songwriters, protect human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and address online safety issues for TikTok’s users.” 

Since UMG is the largest record label in the music industry, the removal of all their music has had quite an impact on the app. This has caused users of the app to be very limited in how they can make their videos. 

How does the TikTok community feel about the changes?  

TikTok has since responded to the statements from UMG and said, “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.” And “It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put their greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.” 

 As TikTok is an app known for its music, many are disappointed because of all the trends that will be lost along with the music that has been pulled from the app. With most videos on the app being muted, many feel like the app is not the same because many of their favorite music is gone. 

When asked about her opinions on the removal of the UMG catalog from the app, freshman Emily Black says, “It’s kinda [sic] annoying that they took mostly all the good songs away.” She later expresses that since many sounds were removed, the app has changed a bit. 

How is this going to affect TikTok? 

If it wasn’t for mainstream songs, a lot of TikTok trends would not exist. A great example of this is the extremely popular artist, Taylor Swift. Her songs are often used to create choreography to make dancing trends, and this brings a lot of new fans and fun videos to the app. 

So, without mainstream music, TikTok is likely going to become disconnected from current pop culture. If this does happen, the app will be negatively affected because a lot of people might stop using the app out of boredom and/or repetitiveness  

UMG and TikTok both recognize the beneficial impact that both companies receive from these songs being on the platform, so the agreement will most likely change soon. They also recognize that the removal of their music will affect the smaller artists in their company as TikTok is where a lot of people gain popularity.