TikTok and the sound of silence

Summary

Universal Music Group (UMG) has withdrawn its content from TikTok due to issues with deepfakes, copyright infringement, and inadequate royalty payments, leading to silent videos and user frustration.

Abstract

After extensive deliberation, UMG, the world's largest record company, has decided to remove its extensive music catalog from TikTok. This decision has resulted in users being unable to add music from their favorite UMG artists to new videos and has rendered existing videos silent due to copyright restrictions. UMG's withdrawal is based on three main concerns: TikTok's insufficient efforts to combat the spread of deepfake technology that could harm the reputation of UMG artists, the platform's inadequate measures to prevent copyright infringement, and the perceived low royalty payments for the use of UMG's music. The move has significant implications for TikTok's appeal and for artists who have relied on the platform for viral exposure. UMG has addressed the situation in an open letter, but until a new agreement is reached, TikTok users must navigate the absence of UMG's vast music library.

Opinions

UMG believes TikTok is not adequately addressing the spread of deepfakes, which could damage the reputations of its artists.
UMG is dissatisfied with TikTok's copyright infringement policies, as evidenced by over 200,000 complaints in the first half of 2023.
UMG is of the opinion that TikTok's royalty payments are insufficient for the use of its music catalog.
The decision to withdraw from TikTok is seen as a strategic move by UMG to negotiate better terms for its artists.
There is a sentiment that TikTok has mismanaged the situation, leading to a breakdown in negotiations and causing significant user frustration.
The expectation is that the issue will be resolved through renegotiated terms and improved measures to protect against irregular use and deepfakes.

TikTok and the sound of silence

IMAGE: Mohamed Hassan — Pixabay

After a series of lengthy discussions, the world’s largest record company, Universal Music Group (UMG), has decided to withdraw its content from TikTok, a move that is creating a lot of problems for users who are suddenly unable to add the music of many of their favorite artists to their videos, while old videos that used that music are now silent.

UMG says the reasons for the withdrawal are threefold: first, TikTok is not doing enough to prevent the spread of algorithmically generated deepfakes that jeopardize the reputations of the artists it represents; secondly, that it needs to take adequate measures to prevent copyright infringement (over 200,000 complaints by the company in the first half of 2023 alone); and finally, that it does not pay enough in royalties.

The artists represented by UMG, which is the fruit of the merger and consolidation of many other record labels, range from the multi-award-winning and ubiquitous Taylor Swift (over 12 million videos on the platform with the hashtag #taylorswift, plus many hundreds of thousands with her album titles or her songs), along with Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, Bob Dylan, Coldplay, Elton John, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, U2, the Weeknd and thousands more. It’s pretty hard to come up with a name from the last half century or more that isn’t represented by UMG.

UMG’s decision is not only a problem for TikTok, which makes it much less attractive to many of its users, but also for artists who believed that viral success depended on getting their music played on the Chinese platform. UMG has published an open letter explaining the reasons for its decision, but for the moment, the situation is what it is: old videos with music owned by UMG that now are now strangely silent (in some cases there is a message warning: “Sound removed due to copyright restrictions”), while anybody uploading new videos has to find other sources of music.

Given its catalogue, it’s hardly surprising that UMG is pushing for better conditions, and in fact, it’s already done so on other platforms. What is odd is that TikTok has allowed the situation to reach this point, and to allow negotiations to break down and cause frustration for a significant number of its users.

As usually happens where money is involved, it will simply be a matter of reopening the negotiations, adjusting the percentages the label receives for the use of the music of the artists it represents, and coming up with some kind of measures to limit the impact of irregular use and deepfakes, but for the time being, all we have is the sound of silence.

(En español, aquí)