The conflict hardens between Universal and TikTok over artist remuneration

2024-03-02 05:04:10

The conflict between the American music industry giant Universal Music Group (UMG) and the Chinese social network TikTok over artists’ remuneration further hardened on Thursday with the withdrawal of several stars from the platform, after Taylor Swift and the Beatles a month ago.

Following the January 31 expiration of a licensing agreement between UMG and TikTok and the failure of their negotiations to renew it, all tracks recorded under Universal’s contract are being removed from the music library of TikTok.

After the American megastar Taylor Swift, the British legends The Beatles or the Canadian The Weeknd, the British pop star Harry Styles and the American R&B author SZA have disappeared from TikTok, owned by the Chinese group ByteDance, with more than a billion users.

“We are in the process of responding to Universal Music Group’s request to remove all songs written [ou coécrites] by a songwriter under contract with Universal Music Publishing Group, consistent with the information they provided to us,” TikTok said in a statement this week.

Resuming its argument from January 31, Universal responded Thursday in a public letter to artists that TikTok had “not agreed to recognize the fair value of your songs”.

Until a month ago, the two groups were negotiating “fair compensation” for artists and songwriters, online security for users and the protection of artists against the harms of artificial intelligence (AI), according to UMG.

TikTok “refuses to take into account our concerns regarding AI” for the use of songs by Universal artists, the American group repeated.

UMG being the world number two in the music industry, its conflict with TikTok has significant repercussions in terms of copyright in music.

In recent years, music rights have become a thriving market after a wave of catalog sales allowing Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young to make money from their works.

These catalogs are interesting long-term assets for investors, in the era of streaming and social networks which are important promotional tools for established or emerging artists.

Owners of the publishing rights to a song receive financial compensation for each broadcast, album sale or use in advertising and films. Registration rights govern the reproduction of works and distribution.

Which means that in the Universal-TikTok conflict, a record from another label like Sony or Warner could be affected if a songwriter linked to Universal collaborated on a track.