Song From Universal Music Group Artist Officially Disappears From TikTok

Taylor Swift, singer under Universal Music Group (Instagram @taylorswift)

JAKARTA - Songs whose licenses are held by Universal Music Group (UMG) officially disappeared from TikTok today, Thursday, February 1.

Based on VOI's search of several singer TikTok accounts under UGM, such as Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish, their songs have disappeared. Especially for Eilish, there is still the song What Was I Made For?.

Likewise with the artist under Universal Music Indonesia (UMI). There is no list of songs on the TikTok accounts of Anggi Marito, Lyodra, Tiara Andini and Ziva Magnolya.

Meanwhile, UMG sent an open letter to artists and songwriters on Tuesday, January 30. They decided not to continue working with TikTok which ended on January 31.

"Currently, as an indication of how small the compensation TikTok provides to artists and songwriters, although its user base is huge and continues to grow, advertising revenue is increasing rapidly, and dependence on music-based content is increasing, TikTok only accounts for about 1% of our total revenue," the UMG open letter reads.

In the end, TikTok tried to build a music-based business, without paying a fair value for the music.

In addition, UMG also complained about TikTok's way of dealing with the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in music.

Regarding AI, TikTok let its platform be flooded with AI-generated recordings, as well as developing tools to enable, promote, and encourage AI music creation on the platform itself, and then demand contract rights that allow this content to be massively diluted.