Image: © Achim Wagner/Stock.adobe.com
The biggest record label in the world has called out TikTok for attempting to ‘intimidate’ the group during recent talks to renew a music deal today.
Universal Music Group published a castigating open letter against TikTok yesterday (30 January), accusing the platform of trying to build a music-based business without paying “fair value” for the music and for sponsoring the “replacement” of artists by AI.
With headquarters in the US and the Netherlands, Universal Music is the biggest music company in the world. It represents some of the world’s most talented musicians, both established and upcoming, by striking deals on their behalf with partners.
TikTok is one such partner, but with the current contract between the two giants ending today (31 January), Universal Music has called out the social media giant for “intimidation” and “bullying” in deal renewal talks.
Of the many accusations levelled against the social media company, Universal Music’s primary issue is that TikTok refused to fairly compensate its artists whose music is pervasive on the app.
“TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay,” the group wrote in the letter, adding that the company accounts for only 1pc of its total revenue despite being a rapidly growing platform.
“Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business without paying fair value for the music.”
Universal Music also accused TikTok of allowing its platform to be “flooded” with recordings of its artists that are generated by AI and developing tools to “enable, promote and encourage” AI music creation on the platform itself.
“[TikTok is] demanding a contractual right which would allow this content to massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists, in a move that is nothing short of sponsoring artist replacement by AI,” the letter reads.
The group also said that social media company, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, makes “little effort” to deal with the vast amounts of content on its platform that infringe on the group’s artists’ music.
“[TikTok] has offered no meaningful solutions to the rising tide of content adjacency issues, let alone the tidal wave of hate speech, bigotry, bullying and harassment on the platform,” the letter goes on.
“The only means available to seek the removal of infringing or problematic content (such as pornographic deepfakes of artists) is through the monumentally cumbersome and inefficient process which equates to the digital equivalent of ‘Whack-a-Mole’.”
‘False narrative and rhetoric’
But perhaps the most unsettling allegation made by Universal Music is a claim that TikTok attempted to “bully” the group into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal and far less than what it deems to be “fair market value”.
“How did it try to intimidate us? By selectively removing the music of certain of our developing artists, while keeping on the platform our audience-driving global stars,” the group wrote.
“TikTok’s tactics are obvious: use its platform power to hurt vulnerable artists and try to intimidate us into conceding to a bad deal that undervalues music and shortchanges artists and songwriters as well as their fans.”
TikTok hit back at Universal Group in a statement that called out the group for putting its “own greed above the interests of [its] 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,” the company wrote.
“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.”
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