UMG Takes Stand Against TikTok’s Unfair Songwriter Pay

Universal Music Group (UMG) has shared an open letter with the community about their contract with TikTok that is set to expire. The label shares that TikTok has proudly called music the heart of its app and is aware that the majority of the platform is music, however, when it came to talking about songwriter pay and musician safety — TikTok started singing a different tune.

Low Revenue for Songwriters

It is an outspoken conversation that artists and songwriters do not get paid enough for the art they create. Even if a song has millions of streams that doesn’t equate to a songwriter being “set for life” in the same way single sales did back in the day. UMG opened up about revenue on TikTok stating, “despite its massive and growing user base, rapidly rising advertising revenue and increasing reliance on music-based content, TikTok accounts for only about 1% of our total revenue.”

At the time of posting this TikTok has not responded to UMG’s open letter. The letter further called out TikTok for its lack of care for human artists, allowing AI generated songs and pornographic images of artists to run rampant on the site with no clear way to take it offline.

UPDATE: As of 1/31/2024 TikTok has responded to UMG’s open letter. The social media giant did not back down. They turned it back on UMG saying other labels were able to come to an agreement but UMG failed due to greed. While these companies are both successful in their own right, it is important the focus be on the payment to the artists and songwriters. While labels can be greedy, demanding proper pay for songwriters should not be labeled as “greed.”

Bully Tactics

When negotiating and attempting to problem solve, UMG described TikTok as a bully. These tactics included silencing UMG’s up and coming talent while allowing global artists to continue to make money for the platform. It is obvious the TikTok knows its power and felt unstoppable.

Taylor Swift Versus Apple Music

For the songwriter community, this is an amazing opportunity. The writers and actors went on strike earlier last year, and this feels like a big move on the side of pay and credit to the musicians who keep TikTok going. We have seen success in boycotting platforms. When Taylor Swift wrote her open letter to Apple Music, she shared that she felt it was not fair that artists were not going to be paid during a user’s free trial period and if that was the case she would not be joining. They met Swift’s requests, and she joined the Apple Music.

Swift is currently signed to Universal Music Group so not having her music will certainly be a big hit to the platform. At the time of writing this, Swift has not made a statement. Hopefully she will comment since her voice would be very strong for songwriters everywhere.

The Future For Songwriters

The UMG contract expires with TikTok on January 31, 2024, so now we wait and see if TikTok can continue to keep “music at the heart” with one of the largest labels, and some of the largest artists, being removed from the platform.

Read UMG’s full open letter here

Interested in more about songwriting? Check out our articles here!

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