TikTok vs. Universal Music: Why Taylor, Drake and Others Were Yanked

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt is joined by Rolling Stone’s Ethan Millman to discuss the ongoing battle between Universal Music Group and TikTok, why Taylor Swift, Drake, and other artists’ music is no longer on the app, if TikTok deserves to pay less in royalties because of its cultural prominence and inherent marketing advantage, and ultimately who needs who more. Matt finishes the show with a prediction about the final season of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’. For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ click here. Email us your thoughts! thetown@spotify.com Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Ethan Millman Producer: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	There are a lot of quarterbacks in the NFL draft this year.
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0:24.2	It is Friday, February 2nd. If you're into TikTok, like producer Craig is, you might have noticed that there's no Taylor Swift or Drake music on your favorite dance videos or makeup tutorials right now. As of yesterday, Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, has pulled all of its
0:41.3	songs from the video-sharing app.
0:43.3	Hundreds and hundreds of artists.
0:45.3	UMG says TikTok, which, remember, is owned by the Chinese company Bight Dance, had not addressed
0:51.3	its concerns over AI-generated music.
0:53.3	And more importantly, the real issue here,
0:55.5	TikTok isn't paying enough in royalties. Ultimately, TikTok is trying to build a music-based business
1:01.2	without paying fair value for the music, UMG says. TikTok has responded by saying UMG has, quote,
1:07.6	chosen to walk away from the powerful support of a platform with well over a billion users.
1:13.5	They then accused the company of putting its, quote, own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.
1:20.3	These kinds of licensing standoffs aren't uncommon in entertainment.
1:23.4	We see it all the time in the cable TV carriage disputes.
1:26.7	But this tension has been an especially big force in music over the past couple decades.
1:31.6	Technology and distribution platforms versus artists' rights.
1:35.2	Everything from Napster to YouTube to Pandora and now TikTok.
1:39.9	Most deals ultimately come down to the wire and occasionally you'll see the rhetoric spill into the public.
	...

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