The first of February saw Universal Music Group take all of its client’s songs off of TikTok, leaving many users disappointed.

Universal Music Group, known as UMG, is the biggest music company in the world. They represent many top stars in the music industry including Taylor Swift, Drake, Justin Bieber, Bad Bunny, and Kendrick Lamar. If you think of an artist, they are likely signed to UMG.

Some of the most popular songs on TikTok are not able to be used anymore. Any videos made with sounds from those artists are now muted. Some songs that have been taken off are “Rich Baby Daddy by Drake”, “Everybody” by Nicki Minaj, and “Surround Sound” by JID. These are all some of the most popular songs on TikTok from the last month.

The licensing agreement between UMG and TikTok had expired and their negotiations for a new deal fell through. UMG said TikTok won’t provide appropriate compensation for their artists and they won’t protect them from AI.

UMG eventually pulled their music from TikTok, which could lead to possible harm to artists. 

Many artists grew their music from TikTok. One of those being Yeat, whose music career was mostly built off trends from TikTok. His top six most popular songs were all popular on TikTok at some point.

TikTok has grown music artists at a substantial rate meaning UMG could be denying future growth from their clients.

TikTok believes UMG is putting its own greed above the artists. TikTok thinks of themselves as a company that focuses on the artists before the companies.

It is unlikely that this will last long as both companies suffer from not having UMG’s music on TikTok.

In the meantime, users on TikTok will find ways to adjust and people will remain waiting for the companies to reunite.