Taylor Swift’s music has made its way back to TikTok after a 10-week hiatus amid a licensing dispute between the app and Universal Music Group.
As of Thursday, TikTok users were able to enhance their videos with the pop star’s songs, including You Belong With Me, Lover, Cardigan, Mirrorball, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Cruel Summer, Cardigan, Style (Taylor’s Version), Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version), The Man, and ME!
Swift’s catalogue, along with tracks from Lady Gaga, Olivia Rodrigo, Drake and more, were withdrawn by UMG on February 1 after the label accused TikTok of trying to ‘bully’ it into an unfavorable contract.
Only Swift’s songs have returned to the platform, with the reason for their reappearance still unclear.
However, according to Variety, it appears probable that TikTok reached a separate agreement with Taylor herself, who owns her masters and presumably has the autonomy to negotiate her own terms.
The return of Swift’s songs also come one week prior to the release of her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, scheduled for April 19.
The outlet suggested Swift may have partnered with TikTok to promote the release, as she did with her Midnights album.
The move comes after UMG called TikTok’s licensing proposal a ‘bad deal’ that didn’t address its concerns over AI-generated music, adequate compensation for artists and songwriters and online safety for TikTok’s users.
TikTok and UMG first struck a deal in 2021 to allow artist’s content to be widely available on the social media platform.
The label accused TikTok of quietly removing up-and-coming artists from the platform while promoting UMG’s more famous performers, adding that the social media company didn’t pay ‘fair value’ for the music.
In an open letter, UMG said: ‘TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay.’
The company accused TikTok of allowing AI-generated music to flood its platform, and claimed it has even gone so far as to ‘promote and encourage AI music creation.’
TikTok hit back against UMG’s accusations, saying the music label was putting ‘their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters’ and claimed it is promoting a ‘false narrative and rhetoric.’
TikTok said it has been able to sign ‘artist-first’ agreements with every other label on its platform and by refusing to do so, UMG has eliminated a promotional and discovery platform that caters to more than a billion users.
UMG stood by its decision, saying TikTok only accounts for one percent of its revenue and, while it understands what this will mean to its artists and fans, the company said it has a responsibility to make sure its artists are fairly compensated on a platform that shows respect for human creativity.
‘TikTok’s tactics are obvious: use its platform power to hurt vulnerable artists and try to intimidate us into conceding to a bad deal that undervalues music and shortchanges artists and songwriters as well as their fans,’ UMG said.
‘We honor our responsibilities with the utmost seriousness. Intimidation and threats will never cause us to shirk those responsibilities.’
