Why TikTok Can Outstare UMG in its Music Standoff

TikTok’s standoff with Universal Music Group is the latest example of how the app has changed from its roots as a lip-syncing platform toward one more focused on shopping.

To recap: Late last month, TikTok and Universal Music Group, one of the biggest record labels in the world, failed to reach an agreement to let TikTok license UMG songs for use on its platform. TikTok removed UMG’s catalog, which includes Taylor Swift, Drake and Olivia Rodrigo, from its library of available music to soundtrack new videos. And it muted existing TikTok videos containing UMG music. The situation escalated further this week when TikTok started removing music whose copyright is owned by Universal Music Publishing Group, a unit of UMG, affecting artists across other major record labels as well. 

The two sides are primarily at an impasse over how much TikTok is willing to pay UMG when the app’s users incorporate snippets of UMG songs in their videos. The two companies are also clashing over TikTok’s proposal to use a royalty pool that it set up for music artists—which Universal shares in—to pay creators who create their own music with artificial intelligence.

That TikTok and UMG have gotten to this point is an illustration of TikTok and its parent company ByteDance’s priorities, I reported yesterday.