TikTok pulls Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Drake, more songs after UMG label alleges unfair pay

Universal Music Group — the recording industry giant with a roster of some of the biggest musicians working today — and TikTok began Thursday the process of removing the label's song library from the social media platform after the two entities failed to come to an agreement over what UMG alleges is unfair pay for its artists' work.

Artists impacted by the decision include those signed to major UMG record labels like Capitol, Interscope, Republic, and more, including Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Drake, Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, SZA, and Adele, among others.

In a lengthy open letter published Tuesday, UMG cited a licensing contract with TikTok that allows the platform to use its artists' music, and that the social media site thus had a responsibility to "fairly compensate our artists and songwriters and treat the user experience with respect."

The licensing agreement expired at the start of February, prompting the removal of the artists' libraries from TikTok's general library, meaning that, as of Thursday morning, users could no longer add songs by the aforementioned artists (and more) to new TikTok posts — some pre-existing posts using such material, however — including Grande's promotion for her new single "Yes, and?" — were still on the site. EW has learned that audio for these posts will be muted at some point in the near future.

UMG also noted that the company's approach to compensation did not match the fact that TikTok's success is "built in large part on the music created by our artists and songwriters," the letter continued.

"With respect to the issue of artist and songwriter compensation, TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay. Today, as an indication of how little TikTok compensates artists and songwriters, despite its massive and growing user base, rapidly rising advertising revenue and increasing reliance on music-based content, TikTok accounts for only about 1 percent of our total revenue," UMG said. "Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music."

In response, TikTok labeled UMG's statement "sad and disappointing," and claimed that the organization put its "own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters" in a press statement of its own.

"Despite Universal's false narrative and rhetoric, the fact is they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users that serves as a free promotional and discovery vehicle for their talent," TikTok's statement continued. "TikTok has been able to reach 'artist-first' agreements with every other label and publisher. Clearly, Universal's self-serving actions are not in the best interests of artists, songwriters and fans."

Though users can incorporate 60-second clips of songs into their videos, TikTok is not a music-focused streaming platform, and is instead a video-sharing application that, according to a source close to the situation, has other agreements in place with many major and independent record labels.

As a result of the ongoing drama between UMG and TikTok, Metro Boomin, a Grammy-nominated Republic record producer, addressed the situation on X when he tweeted a meme with the words "it's about damn time" in response to another post about the "TikTok era of music" coming to an end.

While TikTok is not a direct music streaming service, its popularity among young users has resulted in several recent tracks becoming unexpected hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart thanks to viral TikTok dance trends or widespread usage of songs in general — including Lady Gaga's 2011 song "Bloody Mary" hitting No. 41 thanks to a Wednesday-inspired TikTok dance, Meghan Trainor's sleeper smash "Made You Look," and Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill," which TikTok assisted in rising to No. 3 after the 1985 tune was used in Netflix's Stranger Things TV series in 2022.

As a result, record labels have recently attempted to manufacture viral hits on TikTok to boost new releases from both emerging artists and established acts, a move Metro Boomin also spoke out against on social media.

"I love the creativity and appreciation the kids show for the music on TikTok," he tweeted, "but I don’t like the forced pandering from artists and labels that results in these lifeless and soulless records."

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