One of the channels that entered our lives with the massive development of the mobile world was TikTok. The platform became so popular that in a very short time, it competed fiercely with well-established channels such as Facebook, X (Twitter) and YouTube. However, the latest developments regarding the platform are not very positive. The concept of singing and dancing, which makes TikTok TikTok, may be seriously damaged by Universal Music Group, one of the largest music companies in the world.

Things are not going well on TikTok – nearly 4 million songs may be deleted

The licensing dispute between TikTok and Universal Music Group remains unresolved. As it is known, the agreement between the two giant names ended on January 31, and there were no positive results from the licensing negotiations. However, as of February 1, a large music catalog of approximately 3 million songs by famous artists such as Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Harry Styles within Universal Music Group was removed from TikTok.

According to Universal Music Group, the reasons for not renewing the licensing agreement with TikTok are the failure to pay appropriate royalties to artists, the platform’s inability to block recordings created by artificial intelligence, and problems with online security.

According to the latest information, things do not end here. Because when we look at the latest statement made by TikTok, we can now say that there is a similar situation for songwriters who have a contract with Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG). At this point, after the 3 million songs were removed on February 1, it is possible that nearly 4 million songs will now leave the platform. This means that more popular tracks will leave the platform soon, and this will cause many problems, especially for users who make dance videos.

We are in the process of complying with Universal Music Group’s requirement to remove all songs written by a songwriter signed to Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) based on information provided by them. Their actions not only affect the songwriters and artists they represent, but also many artists and songwriters who are not signed to Universal.

If we expand on this subject a little more, Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) is part of Universal Music Group. However, we can say that it is a unit that focuses only on broadcasting rights. Here, any contribution by a UMPG contracted writer to a song requires the relevant track to be removed from TikTok due to licensing issues.

In other words, the songs of artists who collaborate with names such as Taylor Swift, Adele, Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, Ice Spice, Elton John, Harry Styles and SZA will be removed from the platform, and the sound of videos that already use these songs will be muted.