Universal Music publishes open letter after TikTok negotiations break down

With its contract with video sharing platform TikTok set to expire today, Universal Music Group (UMG) has published an open letter accusing the platform of attempting to ‘bully’ the organisation into accepting a new deal worth less than its previous contract. From today, all music licensed by UMG will be removed from TikTok.

Published yesterday, the letter is titled ‘An Open Letter to the Artist and Songwriter Community: Why We Must Call Time Out on TikTok’. It explains that negotiations for a new contract broke down due to the two media titans failing to reach agreement on the subject of ‘appropriate compensation for… artists and songwriters’, ‘protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI’ and ‘online safety for TikTok’s users.’ You can find the full letter here.

In the letter, UMG states that, while ‘TikTok’s success as one of the world’s largest social platforms has been built in large part on the music created by our artists and songwriters’, the platform ‘proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay’.

Universal also accuses TikTok of supporting the creation of AI-generated recordings and allowing this content to ‘massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists, in a move that is nothing short of sponsoring artist replacement by AI.’ UMG also states that TikTok has not made adequate efforts to tackle ‘infringing or problematic content’ relating to Universal artists on its platform, and describes the process of dealing with incidents of problematic content as ‘monumentally cumbersome and inefficient’ and a ‘digital equivalent of “Whack-a-Mole”.’

The breakdown of negotiations is evident in the open letter, in which UMG also notes that TikTok ‘responded first with indifference, and then with intimidation’ when these issues were raised. The music organisation claims TikTok’s intimidation took the form of ‘selectively removing the music of certain of our developing artists, while keeping on the platform our audience-driving global stars.’

Universal Music closes the letter by stating that it will continue fighting for a fair agreement regardless of any threats from the platform. If UMG fails to reach an agreement with TikTok, all of its songs will be removed from the service once the deal expires today, a UMG spokesperson told Reuters.

In a statement responding to UMG's open letter, Tik Tok has said: 'It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.  Despite Universal's false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users that serves as a free promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent. TikTok has been able to reach 'artist-first' agreements with every other label and publisher. Clearly, Universal's self-serving actions are not in the best interests of artists, songwriters and fans.'