Buda Mendes/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Early on Wednesday, Universal Music Group aimed a threatening shot across the bow at TikTok, saying that it would pull its artists’ music from the platform by the end of the day unless a new licensing agreement is reached: TikTok, Universal said, “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.”
Principally, Universal said, the two companies are divided over “appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users.”
Appropriate compensation for artists is one of the main cause célèbres championed by Taylor Swift, perhaps Universal’s marquee artist at present, whose many self-penned songs serve as the backdrop for countless TikTok videos; but the catalogs of Ariana Grande, Ice Spice, Drake and Nicki Minaj are also at risk of disappearing.