TikTok sounds go silent as songs disappear from the app

TikTok videos have gone silent after a large number of songs were removed from the app.

The disappearance is the result of a conflict between the Universal Music Group label and TikTok, which it accuses of not paying music rights fairly.

Universal represents many of TikTok’s biggest and global stars, such as Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and Adele. These three elements have been the soundtrack to many of the site’s biggest recent trends.

All videos using the songs will now be silent, accompanied by a warning that the audio has been removed.

TikTok’s deal with Universal for song licensing expired on Wednesday. When that deal expired, the two companies announced they had failed to reach a new agreement, with Universal announcing it in a dramatic statement.

A statement written as “an open letter to the artist and songwriter community” read: “TikTok has offered to pay our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate major social platforms pay in a similar situation.

“Today, to show how little TikTok pays artists and songwriters, despite its massive and growing user base, rapidly growing ad revenue, and growing reliance on music content, TikTok represents only about 1% of our total revenue.

“Ultimately, TikTok is trying to build a business based on music, without paying fair value for music.”

The open letter also states that TikTok allows the platform to be “inundated with AI-generated recordings” and is also developing tools to “enable, promote and incentivize AI-driven music creation on the platform itself.”

He accuses TikTok of “demanding a contractual right that would allow this content to massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists, in a move that is nothing less than sponsoring the replacement of artists by AI.”

The letter also criticizes the platform for making “little effort to manage the vast amounts of content on its platform that infringes on our artists’ music and has failed to offer any meaningful solutions to the rising tide of adjacency issues.” of content, not to mention the tidal wave of hate speech, bigotry, intimidation and harassment on the platform.

A statement from TikTok said: “It is sad and disappointing that Universal Music Group has placed its own greed ahead of the interests of its artists and songwriters.

“Despite Universal’s false rhetoric and rhetoric, the fact is that they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with over a billion users that serves as a free vehicle for the promotion and discovery of their talents.

“TikTok has managed to strike ‘artist-friendly’ deals with every other label and publisher. Clearly, Universal’s selfish actions are not in the best interest of artists, songwriters, and fans.”

Additional reporting by Press Association