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Just days after the Universal Music Group‘s publishing catalog began coming down from TikTok, Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) released a new statement stressing its concerns about artificial intelligence and online safety on the short-form video app. The company stated these are “equally” important issues to TikTok lack of “fair compensation” to songwriters.
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UMPG also acknowledged in its new statement that “the disruption is difficult for some of [its songwriters]” but says leaving the TikTok app is “critical for the sustained future value, safety and health of the entire music ecosystem.”
At the end of January, UMG announced in a letter to its artists and songwriters that it would be allowing its license with TikTok to expire, saying that TikTok refused to pay the “fair value” of music and no deal could be reached. (Tiktok fired back with its own statement, hours later, saying UMG’s decision was motivated by “greed”.) Within days, UMG tracks were removed from Tiktok en masse, including the catalogs of superstars Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, Drake, BTS and more who are signed to UMG record labels. In the letter, the company noted that these takedowns would also include its publishing arm, UMPG, but the publishing-related removals did not begin until Tuesday, Feb. 26.
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Now, any song, even if it was released by a non-UMG record label, is subject to takedown on TikTok if even one UMPG-signed songwriter was involved in its creation. Because UMPG is the second largest publisher in the world, these publishing takedowns were wide reaching, impacting almost every record label in one way or another.
In response to the publishing takedowns, TikTok said in a statement on Wednesday, “[UMG’s] actions not only affect the songwriters and artists that they represent, but now also impact many artists and songwriters not signed to Universal. We remain committed to reaching an equitable agreement with Universal Music Group.”
Read UMPG’s new statement to its songwriters below in full:
TikTok is removing UMPG songs because there is no license in place. As you may have heard, to-date, they have not agreed to recognize the fair value of your songs, which so many other digital partners around the world have done.
As we previously addressed in our open letter, in addition to fair compensation for your songs, the negotiations have also focused on two other critical and equally important issues: protecting you, human artists and songwriters, from the harmful effects of AI; and online safety for TikTok’s users, including your fans which include young children.
TikTok’s intentions with respect to AI are increasingly apparent. While refusing to respond to our concerns about AI depriving songwriters from fair compensation, or provide assurances that they will not train their AI models on your songs, recent media reports reveal “TikTok and ByteDance leaders have long wanted to move the app beyond music.” Reflecting on our open letter, other commentators have noted where this distancing from the music industry could lead, fueled by AI: “TikTok has an incentive to push the use of these AI recordings rather than the copyrighted and licensed recordings.”
Every indication is that they simply do not value your music.
We understand the disruption is difficult for some of you and your careers, and we are sensitive to how this may affect you around the world. We recognize that this might be uncomfortable at the moment. But it is critical for the sustained future value, safety and health of the entire music ecosystem, including all music fans.
As always, UMPG will only support partners that value songwriters, artists and your songs. We have a long history of successfully fighting for our songwriters and will continue to do so. You should expect nothing less from us.
Universal Music Group chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge addressed the company’s ongoing licensing dispute with TikTok in its latest earnings call on Wednesday (Feb. 28), saying: “there must not be free rides for massive global platforms such as TikTok that refuse to meaningfully address issues around AI platform safety or pay their fair share for our artists’ and songwriters’ work.”
Boyd Muir, UMG’s CFO and executive vp, also revealed during the earnings call that UMG would “focus on accelerating [its] partnerships” with Meta, Snap, YouTube and more competing social platforms and that it would make more announcements about this “in the coming weeks.”
At the end of January, UMG, the world’s largest music company, opted to let its licensing agreement with TikTok expire, citing that the short-form video app refused to pay the “fair value” for music. It also cited other concerns around artificial intelligence. “TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay,” UMG wrote in a letter to its artists. Within hours, TikTok fired back at UMG in reply, saying that the major music company “has put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.”
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Since then, the companies’ negotiations have been seemingly stuck at a standstill and millions of UMG-controlled recordings have been removed from the platform. Starting Tuesday (Feb. 27), the takedowns went even further, including the removal of any recording that features one or more Universal Music Publishing Group-signed songwriters for the first time. This impacts such major recording artists as Beyoncé, Harry Styles and Bad Bunny, even though they don’t record for UMG.
In response to the publishing takedowns, TikTok said in a statement on Wednesday, “[UMG’s] actions not only affect the songwriters and artists that they represent, but now also impact many artists and songwriters not signed to Universal. We remain committed to reaching an equitable agreement with Universal Music Group.”
UMG’s earnings call on Wednesday focused largely on TikTok during the the question and answer portion, as well as other core development for the company like its new deal with Chord Music Partners.
While UMG has previously said TikTok only makes up about 1% of the company’s total revenue, chief digital officer and executive vp Michael Nash said he believes that’s not necessarily all a loss amid the negotiation standoff. “In general, if consumption shifts from TikTok to other short video platforms like Reels or YouTube Shorts, we believe we can, in fact, recapture some lost revenue,” he said during the call. “Keep in mind, over half of TikTok monthly active users already also use other short video services. In some markets, that percentage is as high as 70%. These are services that monetize engagement at a much higher rate, so revenue positive consumer migration is easily foreseeable.”
Nash also said that UMG has been “providing notices to effectuate the muting of million of videos every day for the last two weeks” on TikTok to aid in the takedown process, which started earlier this month. “And that’s the recorded music content. Keep in mind that our publishing copyrights are just now starting to be enforced on the platform.” He noted that the company has seen “no discernible negative impact” on its “broader digital business’ by leaving TikTok to date but added that “that’s qualified by the fact that we’re very early on in the process… In fact, we’ve seen a slight uptick in terms of frontline consumption and catalog consumption over this short period of time.”
In response to one question about TikTok, Grainge responded, “I’m also not prepared to compromise the future of social category by doing something that completely undermines the economics for us and for everybody else.” One of UMG’s key concerns among the licensing discussions has been that if it were to accept a diminished royalty from TikTok, then other social media platforms could request the same.
But Grainge vowed that UMG likes “to be friendly.” He said, “We are friendly. My phone is open, unfortunately, 24 hours a day. We hope that we can find a solution… we like win-win situations. We’ve laid out what’s important to us, and I believe important to our industry.”
When an investor asked if this remark indicated that UMG was waiting for TikTok to call them and reengage on a deal structure [UMG has] previously presented,” Nash said “we’re not going to comment on the status of discussions with TikTok for obvious reasons.”
At the end of the call, Grainge downplayed TikTok’s impact on music marketing: “I mean, let’s put this into perspective,” he said. “Apple, Amazon, Spotify, YouTube, all the social categories, the fitness categories, digital radio, Sirius, Pandora, iHeart… [TikTok is] one, it’s not a material part of the multidisciplinary jigsaw, where we promote and market our music globally”
Beyoncé‘s “Cuff It” vanished from TikTok on Tuesday (Feb. 27), the latest casualty of the platform’s stand-off with Universal Music Group (UMG).
“Cuff It” is not alone. Harry Styles‘ recordings are no longer available, SZA‘s recordings are gone, except for her new single “Saturn,” and most of Bad Bunny’s music is missing as well — even though none of these artists are signed to UMG labels.
When negotiations between UMG and TikTok fell apart at the end of January, official recordings made by UMG artists like Taylor Swift and Drake swiftly disappeared from the platform. After a grace period, songs that were penned in part by UMPG’s songwriters are now suffering the same fate.
“Cuff It” is one of many Beyoncé songs that features a contribution from a songwriter signed to Universal Music Publishing Group — in this case, Raphael Saadiq. UMPG’s roster also includes artists Styles, Rosalía, SZA, Bad Bunny and Steve Lacy for their songwriting credits. In the U.S., UMPG touches 20% to 30% of the music on TikTok, according to a rep for the platform. The rep declined to comment further.
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UMPG also declined to comment for this story. In a letter to songwriters earlier this month, the publisher said, “TikTok insists on paying our songwriters at a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social media platforms pay — and without any material increase from our prior agreement… This is unacceptable.”
Tension between the music industry and TikTok has been growing for years. Many executives still believe it is the most effective platform for marketing music, even if it is maddeningly hard to influence.
At the same time, many around the music industry argue that TikTok does not pay enough to use the music that helped it become such a wildly popular app. (The music-tech company Pex found that 85% of TikTok videos incorporate music.) Late in 2022, UMG CEO Lucian Grainge noted that a value gap was “forming fast in the new iterations of short-form video.”
In a statement to Billboard at that time, TikTok global head of music Ole Obermann emphasized that the platform was not a music streaming service: “Our community comes to TikTok to watch videos, not to listen to full-length tracks.” He added, “We’re proud of the partnerships we are building with the industry and artists, and we are confident that we are enhancing musical engagement. That translates directly to more financial and creative opportunities for music creators.”
The simmering tension boiled over in late January. In an open letter, UMG announced that its negotiations with TikTok had fallen apart. “TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay,” UMG wrote. The record company accused TikTok of trying to “intimidate us into conceding to a bad deal that undervalues music and shortchanges artists and songwriters as well as their fans.”
TikTok responded by saying that UMG was pushing a “false narrative.” It’s “sad and disappointing, that [UMG] has put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters,” TikTok continued.
The greatest impact of Universal Music Group and TikTok’s licensing stalemate will likely not come from UMG’s superstar artists leaving the platform, it will come from the loss of its songwriters.
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Losing music from record label signees like Taylor Swift, Drake, Morgan Wallen, BTS, Olivia Rodrigo and more on TikTok is seismic on its own, but media coverage of the now-expired license that lapsed on Jan. 31 has largely ignored that the world’s largest music company’s songwriters are leaving, too. That means that any record that was touched by a Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) songwriter will also be subject to removal from the platform — even if it was released on a non-UMG label. Artist-songwriters like Harry Styles, Bad Bunny and SZA are three of many notable examples of UMPG writers that release music under non-UMG labels that will be affected. Artists who work with UMPG hitmakers like Metro Boomin, Jack Antonoff or Fred again.. could also face this.
In today’s pop and rap markets, writing rooms are considered to be bigger than ever, crediting anywhere from one to 30 contributors in extreme cases like cases like Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode.” A typical pop song on the radio likely has at least three or four people receiving publishing. This, mixed with the fact that UMPG is one of the largest music publishers in the world with 4 million copyrights to its name, means that removing all songs with UMPG interests will impact just about every other record label and music publisher in some way.
In the third quarter of 2023, it was calculated that UMPG held a fifth of the market share on the Billboard’s Pop Airplay and Hot 100 charts. For Country Airplay, UMPG represented a tenth of the chart.
There’s also a chance of this standoff spreading to other publishers this spring. On Thursday (Feb. 1), at the Association of Independent Music Publishers event in Beverly Hills, National Music Publishers Association president and CEO David Israelite revealed during a speech that his organization’s TikTok model license is up for renewal in April. This license is negotiated by the trade association and adopted by a large number of the country’s independent publishers.
The NMPA has been known for its aggressive approach to licensing negotiations with other social media sites, games and apps in recent years, including a recent $250 million lawsuit against X (formerly Twitter) for alleged copyright infringement, and it would not be surprising if the trade organization considered following suit with UMG. If that happened, all indie publishers would be on their own to decide whether they wanted to negotiate with TikTok directly or leave the platform.
Already 21 of the 50 tracks on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart have been removed due to their UMG affiliation, but so far those take downs have focused on the company’s recordings, not publishing. Removing UMPG songs will be a far more arduous and complicated task than removing UMG records, given there are sometimes multiple recordings by multiple artists for the same underlying song. Publishing metadata — which keeps track of who wrote what song — is also notoriously incomplete or incorrect. In some cases, the metadata is often not even finalized and input until weeks or months after a song is released, making matters even more complicated.
It is widely believed that the process of taking down publishing interests will likely take a while and will be piecemeal and spotty, potentially forcing the UMPG team to police the platform and to issue takedown notices.
In the interim, UMG and TikTok are showing no signs of backing down. TikTok said the music company had “put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters” after the letter was released. UMG fired back with another statement Thursday, calling TikTok’s view on compensating artists and songwriters “woefully outdated.” Amidst all the finger pointing, TikTok users are attempting to fill the gaps with non-UMG songs or covers of UMG records, while at least one UMPG writer, Metro Boomin, took to the internet to show his support: “It’s about damn time,” he posted to X.
After more than 1,500 votes cast over three rounds of voting, Billboard Pro members selected Universal Music Publishing Group chairman/CEO Jody Gerson for the 2024 Power Players’ Choice Award, which honors the executive they believe had the most impact across the business in the past year. Since Gerson joined UMPG in 2015, the company’s annual […]
Lana Del Rey has signed a publishing agreement with Universal Music Publishing Group, sources tell Billboard. The singer-songwriter was previously affiliated with Sony Music Publishing. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news News of the UMPG deal arrives just a day after Del Rey was announced as one […]
Sony Music Publishing ruled the Top Radio Airplay, Hot 100 Songs and Country Airplay publisher rankings for its third consecutive quarter of 2023, and Warner Chappell Music surged to No. 2 on the Hot 100 Songs chart — the first time it has held the position since the Hot 100 ranking began in 2019.
For the period spanning July through September, all of the big three publishers benefited from shares in the Afrobeats radio hit “Calm Down” by Rema and Selena Gomez. Sony also benefited from stakes in “Last Night” by Morgan Wallen, which hit No. 5 on the Top Radio Airplay chart, and Taylor Swift’s surprise hit “Cruel Summer,” which reached No. 3 on the quarter’s Hot 100 Songs ranking, four years after its initial release due to its placement as the opening song of Swift’s The Eras Tour.
Last quarter, Tracy Chapman’s Purple Rabbit Music publishing company broke into the Hot 100 and Top Radio Airplay charts (ranking No. 7 and No. 10, respectively) for the first time, thanks to Luke Combs’ cover of her 1988 song “Fast Car.” This quarter, her market share as a publisher/songwriter grew even higher. Chapman finished the quarter as the top songwriter on all three charts, propelling Purple Rabbit Music to No. 5 on Top Radio Airplay and No. 6 on both Hot 100 Songs and Country Airplay.
But she wasn’t the only self-published songwriter to make the charts this quarter. As the sole writer of “Rich Men North of Richmond,” Oliver Anthony Music’s publishing company, Christopher Anthony Lunsford Pub Designee, placed at No. 8 on Hot 100 Songs with a 1.49% market share, surpassing such top 10 perennials as Downtown and Reservoir. Like Chapman, Anthony is the sole songwriter of his breakthrough song.
This is the first time that two independent songwriters have broken into the Hot 100 Songs chart at the same time.
Warner Chappell rose to No. 2 on the Hot 100 ranking for the first time in 19 quarters. Previously, it often ranked third or fourth. “Last Night” by Morgan Wallen, “Calm Down” by Rema and Selena Gomez, and 49 other Hot 100 Songs hits accounted for its strong showing of 18.18% of the market share. The publisher held steady in third place on the Top Radio Airplay chart with 15.87% of the market share, and ranked second on the Country Airplay chart with a 26.2% share.
Universal Music Publishing Group took second place on Top Radio Airplay — where its song placements increased to 52 from 49 in the second quarter — and third on Hot 100 Songs. Combs’ “Love You Anyway,” No. 3 on Country Airplay; “Cruel Summer”; and “Calm Down” were UMPG’s highest-ranked songs.
Kobalt held fast to No. 4 on both Top Radio Airplay and Hot 100 Songs but slid to No. 5 on Country Airplay behind BMG. The latter publisher’s share in Jelly Roll’s “Need a Favor” helped it edge past Kobalt’s 4.59% market share with 4.93%.
BMG and Big Machine Music both climbed in the ranks on the Country Airplay charts this quarter. BMG rose from fifth to fourth ranking, thanks to its share of 12 songs on the chart this quarter, including Jelly Roll’s “Need a Favor.” BMM climbed from eighth last quarter (2.57%) to seventh this quarter (2.97%), thanks in part to Luke Bryan’s “But I Got a Beer In My Hand.”
Concord finished 10th on Top Radio Airplay with 1.37%. That percentage might rise in the fourth quarter due to its acquisitions of Round Hill Music and Mojo Music & Media in September. If Concord’s third-quarter market share was combined with those of Round Hill and Pulse, which Concord also owns but lists separately, it would have finished at No. 5 on Top Radio Airplay with 4.96% and at No. 7 on Hot 100 Songs with 3.1%.
Rounding out the top 10, Reservoir fell to No. 8 on Top Radio Airplay with 1.82%, though it improved on its No. 7-ranked second-quarter share of 1.62%. It rounded out the Hot 100 Songs top 10 with 1.17%. Hipgnosis (1.76%) and Downtown (1.44%) finished at No. 9 on Top Radio Airplay and Hot 100 Songs, respectively.
Additional reporting by Ed Christman.
Universal Music Group’s Universal Production Music division has launched a new subscription-based service, offering a pre-cleared library 50,000 songs and 200,000 sound effects, starting at $5.99 per month. The new library, called Universal Music for Creators, is aimed at servicing influencers and online talent that need royalty-free music for their videos and podcasts at a low price.
Universal Music Group’s library includes the option to separate out some of its songs into audio “stems,” industry shorthand for individual instrument tracks used collectively to create a full sound recording. This offers creators greater flexibility to customize the song to best fit their needs.
Though it is full of options for creators, the library does not include any of the major acts that are signed to UMG — like Drake, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and many more. It is searchable through the website’s search bar, where users can type in descriptions of mood and style to find the songs they want. The company also offers curated playlists of different moods and occasions for faster discovery.
UMG is not the first to try to fulfill the needs of the growing creator economy through a subscription-based pre-cleared music library, but the company’s announcement claims that Universal Music for Creators “boasts more tracks and SFX than any other claims-free music subscription service.” In recent years, a number of other libraries have formed with similar business models and offerings, including Songtradr, Loudly, Collabhouse, Bopper, Epidemic Sound and more. Some digital platforms, including TikTok and YouTube, have also amassed their own pre-cleared music libraries for creators to choose from in order to dissuade creators using songs without the proper clearance to do so.
Soundtracking social media content is also one of the most cited use-cases for the burgeoning field of generative artificial intelligence. Some of the models hoping to provide AI music for this use includes Stability AI’s Stable Audio, Soundful, Tuney, and more. These companies threaten to disrupt today’s music libraries, offering soundtracks that are one-of-a-kind and customizable for content creators at a similarly low monthly fee. Still, some of these models do not yet create music that rivals the quality of stock human-made music.
Jody Gerson, UMPG chairman and CEO, said: “Universal Music for Creators delivers our unparalleled production music library to content creators everywhere for the first time. Innovative programs like this exemplify why Universal Production Music continues to lead the industry.”
Jane Carter, president of Universal Production Music said, “We’re thrilled to become the first major publisher to offer production music to content creators as a subscription service and grow the accessibility of our music catalog. With a brand heritage that signifies trust, quality and prestige, Universal Music for Creators will provide affordable, hassle-free music and sound effects for the most imaginative creators. We are excited to provide yet another innovative opportunity to support our talented production music songwriters and composers.”
Primary Wave has signed an administration agreement with the estate of singer and “Soul Man” songwriter Isaac Hayes. As part of the deal, they will administer various publishing interests for Hayes. They will also be granted the opportunity to market the musician’s name, image and likeness.
Universal Music Publishing U.K. has signed electronic artist and producer Fred again.. to a worldwide publishing deal. He started his career as a producer but gained wide recognition for his artist project during the height of the pandemic after releasing his debut album Actual Life (April 14-December 17 2020). Over the course of his career, he has worked with Ed Sheeran, Brian Eno, Travis Scott, Skrillex, Young Thug, J Balvin and Burna Boy.
Artist and songwriter RAYE has renewed her publishing agreement with Warner Chappell Music, following a breakthrough year. Her debut album My 21st Century Blues was released in February and peaked at No. 2 on the U.K. Official Albums chart and its lead single “Escapism.” (featuring 070 Shake) went all the way to No. 1 in the U.K. She first signed to the publisher in 2016, and her extension covers both her catalog and future works.
All Clear Music and Fuji Music Group have acquired a 100% stake in the writer’s share of publishing for songwriter Will Jennings. The deal covers his entire catalog, which spans legendary artists Steve Winwood, Whitney Houston, Roy Orbison, B.B. King, Celine Dion, and Tim McGraw. His biggest hits include “My Heart Will Go On,” “Tears in Heaven,” “Higher Love” and “Up Where We Belong.”
Raleigh Music Publishing has acquired the song catalog of musical theater composer and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner. For his evergreen songs, Lerner has been a past recipient of the Johnny Mercer Award, the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s biggest honor. The deal includes 100% of Lerner’s share of US royalties for the following musicals, excluding writer performance royalties and grand rights: My Fair Lady, Camelot, Gigi, Brigadoon, The Day Before Spring, Love Life, On a Clear Day, Paint Your Wagon, What’s Up.
Concord Music Publishing has extended its publishing agreement with Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard. Over the course of his three decade career, he has written with the Spice Girls, U2, Sia, 5 Seconds of Summer, and Ellie Goulding. One of his longest running relationships is with Kylie Minogue — whom he has been writing with for twenty years and counting. His relationship with Concord began in 2020.
Seeker Music has acquired the publishing catalog of Plested, a top U.K. artist and songwriter who has written songs like “Before You Go” by Lewis Capaldi and “Leave Before You Love Me” by Marshmello, Jonas Brothers. In addition, he also has cuts with Kygo, OneRepublic, Niall Horan, The Chainsmokers, Anne-Marie, James Arthur and more.
Warner Chappell Music and Tape Room Music have renewed their global publishing agreement with country songwriter Hunter Phelps. Additionally, WCM is also acquiring the hitmaker’s catalog, which includes “wait in the truck” by HARDY ft. Lainey Wilson, “Thinking ‘Bout You” by Dustin Lynch and Mackenzie Porter, and “Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God. Amen.” by Chase Rice and Florida Georgia Line.
Position Music has signed Chloe Copoloff to a worldwide publishing deal. The 25-year-old songwriter has worked with Salem Ilese, Alan Walker, Andi, Skydxddy, Sundial, Francis Karel, Holden Miller, and Cloudy June and has forthcoming cuts with VIVIZ, Ashley Sienna, Dia Frampton, Culture Code, Meg DeAngelis, Francis Karel.
Concord Music Publishing has wrapped its 11th annual sync camp in Nashville, where 90 songwriters worked together on songs for synchronization in films, tv shows, commercials and more. Since its inception, the Concord sync camp has garnered over 1500 placements in various forms of visual media, including placements in “All Rise,” “Big Shot,” “The Witcher,” “The Spanish Princess,” and “East New York.”
Outer Voice Music Publishing (OVMP) has signed a global administration deal with Downtown Music Publishing. Founded as a branch of the Outer Voice Company, a label launched by JAM and Philly in association with Converse, OVMP was created to sign and represent the work of South Asia songwriters across the diaspora.
Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) has signed Academy Award and Grammy-winning composer Stephen Schwartz to an exclusive global administration agreement. Schwartz has also received six Tony nominations for composing the music for such shows as Godspell, Pippin and Wicked, which is being turned into a two-part Universal Pictures film starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. Schwartz has won […]
