TikTok Removes Top Hits as Universal Music Deal Falls Through

TikTok reportedly started removing content from its platform, mainly affecting Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) items. This comes as ByteDance's short-form video hosting service and the music company failed to agree to renew the contract.

TikTok and Universal Music's licensing deal expired on Jan. 31, and the royalty fees were the main reason for the failed renewal. As a result, the former is taking down songs produced or released by the latter, as per Tech Crunch.

TikTok Scraps Taylor Swift and UMGP Songs

Unfortunately, many great song titles are affected and would be removed from the TikTok platform. Universal Music boasts of an extensive roster of hotshot artists such as Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, and Billie Eilish, and more so, it means their songs, regardless of their popularity, are set to disappear from TikTok.

TikTok explained that all song pieces written or co-written by a singer or songwriter signed under Universal Music must be deleted. All videos playing UMG music will be muted, meaning the clips will remain on the platform but will not have sounds while playing. In any case, TikTok said UMG and UMPG's combined music list represents about 20% to 30% of the popular songs on its platform.

Beyoncé, Harry Styles, SZA Music Disappeared from Tiktok

Billboard reported that songs have also vanished on TikTok, but they are music from artists who do not record for UMG. It was noted that Beyoncé's "Cuff It" was removed on Tuesday, Feb. 27.

Harry Styles' song titles are no longer on the platform, while SZA's works are also gone except for her latest single, "Saturn." The publication noted that none of these artists are signed under the UMG labels. Still, they are affected by the stand-off between TikTok and Universal Music because the songwriters who have contributed to the composition of their songs are connected to the Universal Music Publishing Group.

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