Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s largest music label, will stop licensing its music to TikTok amid a contract dispute

UMG – which represents Taylor Swift, Drake, Olivia Rodrigo, and numerous other world-famous artists – currently licenses its music to TikTok, enabling users to create videos with them

TikTok – with 1.5B+ monthly users – claims its platform boosts artists’ streaming revenue and gives smaller artists exposure

The Chinese-owned company has contracts with nearly every major music label and publisher

For weeks, UMG and TikTok have been in contract negotiations, during which UMG was pressing TikTok for greater compensation for its artists

It also reportedly sought more protections against AI on TikTok

Their current contract expired on Wednesday, though, with no deal in place

That means that as of Wednesday, its songs will no longer be available on the social media app

In an open letter to its artists, UMG criticized TikTok for their failure to reach a new contract

“TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay," it wrote

"[During negotiations], TikTok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth”

Also on Wednesday, TikTok released its own account of events

Calling UMG’s narrative “false,” TikTok accused the label of putting “their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters”

“The fact is they have chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users,” it said

“TikTok has been able to reach…agreements with every other label and publisher,” it added

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