Toppling TikTok’s Tunes
Imagine logging onto TikTok after an exhausting day of school and the backtrack to the infamous Jacob Elordi edit has been muted. That feeling of disappointment does not compare to artists’ when they discover that their music will be permanently removed from one of their main promoting platforms. On Jan. 31, it was announced that Universal Music Group (UMG), a top record label, has removed all of their artists’ music from TikTok due to unfair pay and copyright issues (Consumer News and Business Channel). Artists contracted with the label were unaware of this change and are no longer able to use the platform to promote their music. UMG is a large client for TikTok, with about three million tracks on the app from large scale artists, such as Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Lana Del Rey to smaller scale artists like Dean Lewis. TikTok generated an estimated $11.65 billion in total revenue in 2023 and only gives UMG $110 million annually, though this only marks 1% of their total revenue (Music Business Worldwide). UMG also raised issues with TikTok about how they are spreading songs generated by artificial intelligence across the platform, causing many copyright concerns. Although UMG deserves fair compensation for their music being streamed on TikTok, pulling their entire catalog does more harm than good, as it directs artists’ target audiences away from the app, subsequently causing them to obtain less streaming revenue.
“Even though UMG should not have removed all their music from TikTok, TikTok was wrong to underpay them,” senior Ivana Bilic said. “For example, Snapchat is arguably less popular than TikTok, but [Snapchat] still pays popular influencers who consistently use the app. UMG is responsible for the majority of the music on TikTok, so TikTok should be meeting their demands in terms of how much money they receive.”
Many rising artists rely on TikTok to promote new releases since the app has previously been known for popularizing songs from artists such as Doja Cat, Lil Nas X and Laufey. When Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license” came out, it caught the attention of users on the app who recognized her from Disney Channel. Fans were easily able to share videos using her song as a backtrack, allowing even more people to become familiar with Rodrigo’s music. However, without that promotional power, these artists must rely on other social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube. Since the user bases of these platforms are not growing their following within the younger generation as rapidly, artists will not see the same buzz for their music that they once did (Pew Research Center). Additionally, videos on TikTok are shorter than the videos on other platforms, which captures a user’s limited attention span, making it easier to target their true interests. Because of their shorter videos, TikTok is generally the most accessible platform to consistently see an artist’s videos and discover new music because of how accurate the algorithm is. Another way that artists engage fans in their music is through their online persona, including the kind of content they post outside of music. Laufey and Lil Nas X established TikTok personalities where they shared sarcastic videos or videos centered around their lives, developing loyal fan bases even before becoming mainstream artists.
“It is really disappointing [that TikTok has] much less music than before,” junior Julianne Soo-Hoo said. “I wish TikTok would just pay [UMG] more so we could have good music on the app again. I love artists like Laufey and Keshi and I found them through TikTok.”
Instead of hastily pulling all their music from popular social media apps, UMG should thoroughly consider all the benefits and drawbacks of their decision. In 2008, a similar situation arose when Warner Music Group, another well-known record label, pulled all of their videos from YouTube because they were not receiving enough advertising revenue. However, after nine months, both companies drew up a contract with terms that gave enough advertisement revenue to Warner Music Group (The New York Times). If TikTok vows to ban the spread of AI-generated music and give UMG at least 5 to 7% of their total revenue as compensation, they would come to an agreement and both companies would benefit. On top of that, the 1.2 billion TikTok users would be able to listen to their favorite songs on the app again.
“TikTok is more at fault than UMG in this scenario,” senior Aazaan Chhabra said. “They are one of the fastest-growing social media apps with a higher volume of teenagers [than other social media apps]. [TikTok] is already making a lot of [advertising] revenue so using that money to support the companies they work with will give them a better reputation as they develop their platform.”
