Everyone knows that confronting the Swifties (Taylor Swift’s followers) is one of the worst ideas anyone can have in this world. They are a force of nature that spreads across the planet like a contagious virus.
Well, with the latest move, TikTok users have turned against Taylor Swift and hundreds of major artists who are part of the huge music producer that is Universal. Let’s explain it.
Universal Music Group (UMG) has started to remove the music catalogs of the artists it represents from TikTok, including: Taylor Swift, Drake, and Olivia Rodrigo.
This happens after negotiations to renew the licensing agreements broke down this week. The previous licensing agreement between UMG and TikTok expired on January 31st.
A disagreement affecting millions of TikTok users
On Tuesday, UMG accused the Chinese video platform of trying to intimidate it into accepting a “bad deal” that did not address the concerns of the record labels.
Regarding adequate compensation for artists and composers, protections against AI-generated music, and online security on the platform to protect artists from “hate speech, intolerance, intimidation, and harassment.”
TikTok responded by saying it was “disappointing” that UMG had “chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with over a billion users,” and accused the record label of putting its “own greed above the interests of its artists and songwriters.”
Now, UMG-owned music that appears in TikTok videos will be muted, and users who want to replace the removed tracks will have to select alternative options from other music labels.
How this chapter will end is not clear, but what we do know is that Taylor Swift’s fans are going to make so much noise that one of the two companies will have to give in.
