Legal dispute: Universal Music withdraws songs from Tiktok
Universal Music, the world's largest music company, has begun removing its artists' songs from the video app TikTok amid a dispute over licensing fees. On Thursday, music by Taylor Swift and Drake, among others, was no longer appearing in search results.
Tiktok allows users to add songs to their videos and enters into license agreements with the music industry to do so. However, Universal Music declared this week that negotiations to extend the previous agreement had failed. It therefore expired on Wednesday.
Universal Music argued in an open letter that Tiktok offered musicians and songwriters only "a fraction" of the usual remuneration on similar other online platforms. Tiktok also allows music created with the help of artificial intelligence onto the platform on a large scale - and wants contractual freedom to do so. In doing so, the service is effectively "replacing artists with AI".
Tiktok counters
Tiktok countered that Universal Music had "put its own greed above the interests of its artists and songwriters". The music company is thus staying away from a platform with "well over a billion users" on which music is promoted and discovered. Universal Music is therefore not acting in the interests of musicians and fans.
Tiktok's withdrawal from Universal Music could result in dissatisfied users. Many videos on the platform have musical accompaniment and the company has many of the world's most popular musicians under contract. Universal Music acknowledged that the move would have consequences for its own musicians. However, the company has 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 USA. The service belongs to the Bytedance Group, which is based in 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 is based in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. Critics counter that the Chinese founders hold a 20 percent stake thanks to higher voting rights and that Bytedance has a large headquarters in Beijing. (SDA/swi)
