Taylor Swift‘s record company is threatening to pull her music from TikTok in a dispute over royalty payments.
On Tuesday, the Universal Music Group (UMG), whose roster includes Swift, released a statement about its “contract renewal discussions” with the social media platform titled, “An Open Letter to the Artist and Songwriter Community — Why We Must Call Time Out on TikTok.”
In the statement, Universal emphasized that its current contract with TikTok expires on Wednesday, January 31.
“In our contract renewal discussions, we have been pressing them on three critical issues — appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI and online safety for TikTok’s users,” the statement read. “TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay. Today, as an indication of how little TikTok compensates artists and songwriters, despite its massive and growing user base, rapidly rising advertising revenue and increasing reliance on music-based content, TikTok accounts for only about 1% of our total revenue.”
UMG also accused TikTok of unfair tactics in their negotiations.
“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,” the record label 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.”
As AI becomes more prominent, UMG also claimed that TikTok is taking advantage of the technology at the expense of its artists.
“On AI, TikTok is allowing the platform to be flooded with AI-generated recordings — as well as developing tools to enable, promote and encourage AI music creation on the platform itself — and then 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,” Universal wrote. “Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music.”
In addition to Swift, 34, the Universal Music Group’s artists also include Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Eminem, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and many more. Their music could also be pulled from the platform if Universal and TikTok don’t reach an agreement.
TikTok responded on Tuesday by accusing Universal of “false” statements and being greedy.
“It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters,” TikTok’s statement began. “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.”
The statement noted that “TikTok has been able to reach ‘artist-first’ agreements with every other label and publisher” before concluding, “Clearly, Universal’s self-serving actions are not in the best interests of artists, songwriters and fans.”
Warner Music Group (WMG) is among the music companies that have recently signed licensing agreements with TikTok. In July 2023, WMG and TikTok announced a multiyear deal that “will help Warner Music’s artists and songwriters unlock new revenue and marketing opportunities from TikTok’s more than 1 billion users.”
The list of stars who record for WMG includes Bruno Mars, Cardi B, Coldplay, Kelly Clarkson and Ed Sheeran.
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