Stans rejoice — your faves are finally returning to TikTok. After a three-month standoff, Universal Music Group has reached a new licensing agreement with the app, allowing songs from music’s largest label group to return. Per a press release from TikTok, the new deal includes “improved remuneration” and “industry-leading protections” for AI, two of UMG’s sticking points in the original holdout. TikTok also teased “new promotional and engagement opportunities” for UMG artists. “Music is an integral part of the TikTok ecosystem, and we are pleased to have found a path forward with Universal Music Group,” said Shou Chew, TikTok’s CEO. Per TikTok, it will take one to two weeks to return all of UMG’s catalogue to the app, including songs by Ariana Grande, BTS, and hundreds of other artists.
A turning point came when Taylor Swift, UMG’s biggest artist, seemingly struck her own deal with TikTok last month, allowing her music to return to the app ahead of The Tortured Poets Department. By that point, fans had already been illicitly uploading UMG songs to TikTok, and artists themselves reportedly even found workarounds by uploading songs without credits for writers under Universal Music Publishing Group. The new license also comes just days after President Biden signed a law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell the app within nine months.
UMG is now the second of three major label groups to strike new deals with TikTok after Warner Music Group did last year. Meanwhile, Sony Music Entertainment’s CEO hinted as recently as late March that its own artists could leave TikTok over similar payment concerns. So now that all your favorite music is finally back on TikTok, get to posting while you still can.
