ENTERTAINMENT NEWS - Millions of videos on TikTok will have their audio muted after Universal Music Group’s licensing agreement with TikTok expired Wednesday.
Any song from the label, which includes artists like Taylor Swift, SZA, the Weeknd and Ariana Grande, will be removed from the platform.
Many of UMG’s songs have sparked viral trends on TikTok, like Swift’s “Cruel Summer,” which has been used in almost 2.5 million videos, and TikTok helped the songs become chart-toppers.
But UMG says proposed payouts were a “fraction” of the standard for other major social media platforms, and expressed concern about the growing use of AI-generated sounds on the platform.
TikTok disputed the label’s argument and called it “self-serving” for walking away from a “powerful” platform with over a billion users.
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