TikTok Will Have Ariana Grande, The Weeknd And More Back On The Platform After Striking New Deal

BYLavender AlexandriaPublished on May 02, 20241058 Views

US And EU Ban TikTok From Staff Mobile Devices

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 28: In this photo illustration, a TikTok logo is displayed on an iPhone on February 28, 2023 in London, England. This week, the US government and European Union's parliament have announced bans on installing the popular social media app on staff devices. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

After months of the songs being inaccessible they will return within two weeks.

A major battle over the future of how music is used on social media and how labels are paid for it may have just come to a close. After months of speculation about what Universal Music Group would do if they couldn't come to an agreement with social media platform TikTok. The conflict was over paying out royalties for song use and the deal collapsed. As a result, UMG removed their music catalog from the app earlier this year. Fans were left unable to add songs from some of their favorite artists to their videos and found some of their older clips entirely muted.

That was months ago and there hadn't been many updates since. That was at least until earlier this week when the label and social media platform surprised fans. They made the announcement that a new deal had been reached that would return all of UMG's songs to the platform. The change hasn't been fully enacted yet with some users still finding older videos in their catalog muted. It's expected that the music will return to the platform within one to two weeks. The companies declined to release any hard financial data about the agreement they came to.

UMG and TikTok Reach New Agreement

The future of the entire TikTok platform could be in Jeopardy after a recent piece of legislation passed in the United States. Last month, President Biden signed a new bill into law that's attempting to ban the platform. They're calling for it to be removed unless its sold to new ownership. Experts claim that fans of the social media app won't have to worry about it disappearing any time soon. Regardless the long term stability of the platform was certainly rocked by the ruling. That made the short term win of returning music to the platform a much needed victory.

What do you think of Universal Music Group and TikTok finally reaching an agreement to bring all of the labels songs to the platform? Do you think the debacle will lead other labels to try similar tactics when negotiating with the social media app? Let us know in the comment section below.

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About The Author

Lavender Alexandria

Lavender Alexandria is a music and culture journalist based in Los Angeles, California. She’s covered dozens of musical genres and styles from the most mainstream to the most experimental and underground on her blog and accompanying YouTube channel that looks at music, pop culture, and Billboard charts since 2017: Lav’s Music Corner. Lavender has produced editorial and listicle content both in written and video form over the past far years and has also interviewed up-and-coming artists like Censored Dialogue. Her experiences covering culture have taken her from Hyperpop parties in LA to underground rap shows in Atlanta, to DIY punk shows in Charlotte. Lavender has also written for iHeartRadio, covering some of the biggest artists in Hip Hop such as Ice Spice, Drake, Doja Cat and Cardi B. She also has bylines with ScreenRant and continues to write for Ringtone magazine. Lavender is a lifelong Charlotte Hornets fan and her favorite rap artists include Clipping, Little Simz, Earl Sweatshirt, and Kendrick Lamar.