Universal Pulls Taylor Swift, Several Stars, Music from Tiktok in Major Blow to Chinese Company: Here’s Why

Taylor Swift, Drake, The Weeknd and Olivia Rodrigo are amongst a host of stars who have had their music catalogs removed from TikTok after negotiations to renew licensing agreements broke down.

The reason came down to money – and how it was shared.

A licensing agreement between TikTok and Universal Music Group (UMG), which represented the performers expired on Wednesday, and a new deal could not be reached, the BBC reports.

UMG, the world’s largest record label,  said China-owned TikTok wanted to pay a “fraction” of the rate other social media sites do for access to its songs while TikTok accused UMG of presenting a “false narrative and rhetoric.”

The music company previously reached a deal with TikTok in February 2021, which allowed users on the app to be able to incorporate clips from its music catalogue in their videos.

Now, UMG-owned music that features in TikTok videos will be muted on the video sharing site, and users looking to replace the removed tracks will need to select alternative options from other music labels.

Some artists such as Ariana Grande and Katy Perry have had most of their music disappear from their official pages, except a few songs which are on other labels.

Billie Eilish, another UMG artist, has had all but one of her songs taken down, the BBC report noted.