The two giants continue to battle it out in a merciless duel.
On the night of Thursday February 29, the UNIVERSAL group emailed a letter to every artist in their catalog. In it, they give an update on the situation with TikTok. As a reminder, all the songs in the Universal catalog (Ariana Grande, The Weeknd…) have been unavailable on TikTok for several days. The reason? “TikTok has removed all songs that are part of the UNIVERSAL catalog, as no agreement has been reached” the letter in question reads.
In this statement, the major explains its fears about the use of artificial intelligence, but also, points the finger at TikTok for underpaying artists: “TikTok’s intentions to commit to the fair use of AI are non-existent (…) All indicators suggest that TikTok does not respect your music at its fair value”. Finally, UNIVERSAL acknowledges that the situation is complicated, even chaotic for some artists who can no longer promote via TikTok: “We understand that this situation is difficult and can impact the careers of certain artists”. To be continued…
