As the music industry continues making sense of music by Universal Music Group’s artists being removed from TikTok earlier this week, on Sunday night (Feb. 4) during the 66th Grammy Awards, host Trevor Noah called out the short-form video app during his opening monologue.
“Shame on you, TikTok, for ripping off artists. That’s Spotify’s job”!” he quipped.
Earlier this week, the licensing agreement between UMG and TikTok expired after the two sides failed to reach a deal. This resulted in the removal of artists’ music catalogs including Taylor Swift, Drake and others from the platform. The day before the removal began, UMG wrote an open letter addressing the issues with the platform. UMG lambasted TikTok and accused it of bullying the music company into a deal worth less than their previous agreement. Elsewhere in the letter, UMG called out TikTok for not being willing to address the A.I. and piracy issues. They also cited the company for handling the situation with “indifference, and then with intimidation.”
“As our negotiations continued, TikTok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth,” the letter read. “How did it try to intimidate us? By selectively removing the music of certain of our developing artists, while keeping on the platform our audience-driving global stars.”
UMG’s roster includes Taylor Swift, BTS, Drake, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey, Billie Eilish, Eminem, Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber, Karol G and Post Malone.
