TikTok has silenced some of the biggest names in music, including Taylor Swift, The Weeknd and Olivia Rodrigo, after a bitter feud with their record label, Universal Music Group (UMG).
The two parties failed to renew their licensing agreement, which expired on Wednesday, leaving millions of TikTok users unable to use UMG songs in their videos.
UMG accused TikTok of trying to lowball them, saying they wanted to pay a “pittance” compared to other social media platforms.
TikTok hit back, calling UMG’s claims “false and misleading”.
The result is a musical blackout on TikTok, with all videos featuring UMG music muted and new videos blocked from using those tracks.
Some of the most popular artists on the platform, such as Ariana Grande and Katy Perry, have seen their music vanish from their official pages, except for a few songs from other labels.
Billie Eilish, another UMG star, has only one song left on her page.
Her song What Was I Made For? was part of the Barbie movie soundtrack, which was released by Warner Music Group.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Murder on the Dancefloor, which became a viral sensation after being used in the film Saltburn, is also gone.
Only unofficial, altered versions of UMG songs are still available to use. Noah Kahan, whose hit song Stick Season went viral on TikTok, posted a video on his account saying he was frustrated by the situation.
“I can’t shove it down your throats any more on this app,” he said.
“I’ll be fine, right? I’ll bounce back, right?”
Music companies and artists rely on royalty payments from streaming and social media platforms to make money.
On TikTok, their songs are used as background music for the videos uploaded by users.
But there has always been tension over how much the platforms pay, which escalated into a public spat in this case.
UMG and TikTok were negotiating a new deal, but could not reach an agreement before the 31 January deadline.
In an open letter, published on 30 January, Universal slammed TikTok, saying they were trying to “exploit” their music without paying a fair price.
Universal also expressed concern over AI-generated songs that mimic real artists, such as one that sounded like Drake and The Weeknd, which went viral.
They also criticised TikTok’s content moderation, saying they did not do enough to stop “the flood of hate speech, bigotry, bullying and harassment on the platform”.
