Universal Music Group (UMG) is leaving TikTok users not only in the dark, but in complete silence by removing music from various popular artists under its label such as Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber from the platform.
On Jan. 30, the Dutch-based company addressed TikTok in an announcement on its website saying unless Tiktok better moderates artificial intelligence (AI) on the app, UMG will not renew their contract, which then expired on the 31st. Additionally, UMG accused TikTok of underpaying their songrwiters and artists.
“We have an overriding responsibility to our artists to fight for a new agreement under which they are appropriately compensated for their work, on a platform that respects human creativity, in an environment that is safe for all, and effectively moderated,” the announcement said.
On paper, this sounds like a smart move; however, UMG’s decision to pull its music from TikTok is hurting artists behind closed doors.
“I won’t be able to promote my music on TikTok anymore… I’ll probably be OK, right? I’ll probably land on my feet, right? Right?” American singer-songwriter Noah Kahan said in an article by The Guardian.
Fortunately, Kahan was nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammys Awards this year. With UMG pulling music from TikTok, smaller artists under UMG may never get to that point in their careers without the help of one of the largest music promoting apps.
“Universal muted every song I’ve ever created under them on the very platform they discovered and signed me from,” Australian artist Peach PRC captioned in a video she made on the subject.
Australian singer-songwriter George Alice expressed her disappointment in UMG for not considering the smaller artists within the label.
“ What do the small fish of the ponds- the artists that have been relentlessly posting the really embarrassing videos to these sounds for the last three/four/five years to promote our music [and succeeding]… Do when the other artists do have access to TikTok and Universal artists don’t? Where do we promote our stuff?”
UMG’s decision to take down music from TikTok was a short-sided mistake, leaving its smaller artists in the dust.
“It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put their own greed above the interest of their artists and songwriters… Chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform… that serves as a free promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent,” TikTok responded to UMG on its website.
On the other hand, there are many small indie music artists outside of UMG who are using TikTok to promote their music and are having newfound success in doing so.
“They’re all halfway up the mountain, asking why they can’t go higher while small artists stare up from rock bottom after years of trying,” indie pop artist Rebecca Rea sang in a TikTok video she made on the topic.
One can argue UMG pulling music will give smaller independent artists outside the company a bigger space to promote their music and to not compete with labels.
With how big of a platform TikTok is for promoting music, time will only tell how the music industry pivots from here. Most likely, bigger artists such as Ariana Grande and The Weeknd will not be seeing a complete downfall of their listeners, but will have to rethink how they promote their future content.
Given the circumstances, smaller artists have an even bigger ability to shape the future of the music industry. Although parts of music history have been muted on TikTok, art will prevail.
Nicole Dumont can be contacted at
ndumont@kscequinox.com
