Licensing Dispute | Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift Might Leave TikTok

Paresh Jadhav

11 months ago

TikTok may soon experience massive disruption as Universal Music Group, the primary representative for global artists like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Bad Bunny and Drake has decided to withdraw its content due to a disagreement regarding fair compensation for musicians and songwriters.

UMG recently issued an open letter to TikTok outlining three main concerns; appropriate compensation for artists and songwriters, protection against artificial intelligence as well as online safety are the topics addressed by UMG.

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Taylor Swift

Over one billion users of social media app TikTok may find themselves less engaged now that Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest record label, is beginning to withdraw its music from TikTok videos featuring UMG songs. John Yang discussed this development with Ben Sisario and reported on how UMG songs now remain muted when appearing in these videos on TikTok.

Billie Eilish

TikTok may soon become less enjoyable for millions of users worldwide as one of the biggest record labels is holding out against it.

Universal Music Group announced its licensing deal with China-based ByteDance has expired and they no longer intend to license artists like Taylor Swift, Drake, Adele or Billie Eilish for use on ByteDance’s video platform.

UMG accuses TikTok of wanting to pay only a fraction of what it pays other social media platforms for access to its songs, while simultaneously promoting AI-generated music which they view as potentially harming human artists. TikTok responded with what they term as false narrative and rhetoric.”

While experts predict the standoff won’t last for too long, it will place undue stress on creators, artists and fans who rely on the app to share their creations – potentially hindering new and emerging artists’ success.

Bob Dylan

Record labels often find themselves at odds with social media platforms over licensing terms, yet contracts tend to get resolved within days to months at most.

Music marketing expert Jessica Henig, who has worked on campaigns featuring UMG-licensed music, lamented its inconveniencing effect for users; however, she noted that her team had become adept at working around delays on platforms such as YouTube and Instagram.

TikTok may have no impact on Bob Dylan’s music sales, but his absence could still result in legal action over comments he made to Rolling Stone magazine in 2012. A French community organization asserted those remarks amounted to incitement of racial hatred, leading a formal investigation in France against Dylan for incitement of racism despite him disputing these allegations; an identical lawsuit in the US has since been dropped.

Bob Marley

At Nine Mile, where Bob Marley had been born 36 years earlier in a two-room shack, New Order bassist Peter Hook sat on a balcony with friends and family. Throughout most of the 1980s when they had hits like “Crystal” and headlined massive festivals, he had been an integral member.

However, his current situation serves as a stark reminder of just how drastically the music industry has transformed over time. Success today depends on cultivating an engaged following on TikTok; any amount of actual success or career longevity won’t grant an artist freedom from virality battles unless they sign an exclusive licensing deal with Universal Music Group (UMG), such as Swift and Eilish do now; UMG threatens to withdraw their music unless TikTok agrees on licensing agreement terms.