Universal Music Group and TikTok had a licensing disagreement leading to UMG pulling it’s music off of Tiktok

On Wednesday January 29, Tiktok and Universal Music Group had a contract termination  where starting February 1st, songs that are licensed with Universal Music Group are no longer allowed to be used on Tiktok. When users go onto celebrity artist’s accounts and look on their sound tabs a message pops up saying “No original sounds yet”.  Music from popular artists like Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and the Weeknd are now muted leaving users feeling annoyed and like the app have become less amusing. 

A number of users are questioning, “Why did they have a contract termination?”. UMG wanted to protect their artist. The music corporation had concerns regarding hate speech and harassment towards artists, A-I music creation from their artist and overall compensation. UMG wanted Tiktok to pay more for the music that they use on the app by UMG artists and stated that Tiktok refused to pay an adequate amount. Tiktok responded by claiming that they have been able to reach ‘artists first’ agreements with every other label and publishers, and that Universal’s actions are not in the best interest of artists, songwriters and fans. Some users resulted in making their own covers of popular songs or re uploading Universal Music Group’s songs under their own accounts. Now some of you reading this may ask “ How does this relate to high school students?” Tiktok is mostly used by teens, especially high schoolers. Scrolling through TikTok, you will most likely see high-school students hopping on popular trends, dancing in front of their school staircase or in the bathroom. Many high schools even have their own Tiktok accounts where they are run by students. Even if students don’t post, they watch, they like, they add videos to their favorites, and they share. Altogether this whole situation between Tiktok and Universal Music Group turns this popular social media app into something different for users. 

Braintree High Junior Sofia Karterakis stated,“I think it takes away the purpose of Tiktok, because Tiktok is known as a music app, it’s all about music”  Tiktok is a platform that is based on music and always has been. Without music, Tiktok would just be completely different. The idea of Tiktok not being allowed to have music from certain artists played especially by celebrities is just astonishing. Especially since many artists gain more popularity from having their music on Tiktok. Tiktok is also a very popular place to discover new music from up and coming artists. It’s not uncommon to see loads of new artists go to Tiktok to gather an audience for their new music. People take advantage of the publicity that is gained by using the platform and gather an audience by telling their story and posting their music. A number of celebrities that are well known today got their fame off of Tiktok. Another junior at Braintree High, Maeva Julien, said, “A lot of artists wouldn’t have their career without Tiktok.”