Categories: Technology

TikTok under pressure: Universal Music gets serious and pulls songs

The world’s largest music company, Universal Music, has started withdrawing songs by its artists from the video app TikTok in a dispute over royalties. On Thursday, music from Taylor Swift and Drake, among others, no longer appeared in searches.

TikTok allows users to add songs to their videos and enters into licensing agreements with the music industry. However, Universal Music stated this week that negotiations to extend the previous agreement had failed. This expired on Wednesday.

Also criticized for AI

TikTok offered musicians and song authors only “a fraction” of the compensation common on other similar online platforms, Universal Music argued in an open letter. TikTok also allows music that has been created on a large scale with the help of artificial intelligence on the platform – and wants contractual freedom for this. In this way, the service essentially encourages “the replacement of artists with AI.”

TikTok counters

TikTok countered that Universal Music had “put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.” The music company stays away from a platform with “significantly more than a billion users” on which music is advertised and discovered. Universal Music does not act in the interests of musicians and fans.

Universal Music’s departure could leave TikTok with dissatisfied users. Many videos on the platform have musical accompaniment, and the group has many of the world’s most popular musicians under contract. Universal Music admitted that the move would have consequences for its own musicians. However, we have a responsibility to fight for fair conditions for them.

TikTok is the only successful online platform in the West that does not originate from the US. The service belongs to the Bytedance Group, which comes from China. However, the company always emphasizes that it does not see itself as a subsidiary of a Chinese company.

Bytedance is 60 percent owned by Western investors. The company’s headquarters are in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. Critics counter that the Chinese founders, with a 20 percent stake, retained control thanks to higher voting rights and that Bytedance has a major headquarters in Beijing.

(dsc/sda/awp/dpa)

Source: Watson

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