{"id":79848,"date":"2024-04-18T21:03:28","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T01:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/04\/18\/tiktok-is-talking-to-umg-again-but-washington-may-hold-the-keys-to-its-future\/"},"modified":"2024-04-18T21:03:28","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T01:03:28","slug":"tiktok-is-talking-to-umg-again-but-washington-may-hold-the-keys-to-its-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/04\/18\/tiktok-is-talking-to-umg-again-but-washington-may-hold-the-keys-to-its-future\/","title":{"rendered":"TikTok Is Talking to UMG Again, But Washington May Hold The Keys to Its\u00a0Future\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n
\n

\n\tTikTok<\/a> has returned to the bargaining table with Universal Music Group (UMG), but a fast-tracked Congressional bill that could result in the platform being sold, or, as a last result, banned in the United States may reach President Joe Biden<\/strong>\u2019s desk before those negotiations are finished. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA source familiar with the talks says Bytedance \u2014 the Chinese company that owns TikTok \u2014 has returned to the bargaining table with UMG after the label group pulled its music from the social media platform at the end of January citing its refusal to address three \u201ccritical\u201d issues: \u201cappropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters,\u201d \u201cprotecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI\u201d and \u201conline safety for TikTok\u2019s users.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Taylor<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tTaylor, the Disruptor: The Star\u2019s Return to TikTok Shows Her\u00a0Power\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s unclear whether any progress has resulted \u2014 neither UMG nor TikTok will comment \u2014\u00a0but ByteDance currently faces\u00a0a more urgent, existential issue now that the Speaker of the House of Representatives has attached what\u2019s being called the TikTok national security bill to the foreign aid package for Ukraine and Israel that is expected to move quickly through Congress. The House may vote on it as early this weekend and the Senate is expected to act quickly. If it passes in both houses, President Biden has promised to sign it immediately. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOfficially titled The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, the proposed legislation<\/a> was drawn up after White House national security and intelligence leaders\u00a0briefed House lawmakers on the potential dangers that TikTok, which is used by 170 million Americans, poses to the nation. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat the TikTok National Security Bill Does<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIf Biden signs the bill into law, ByteDance will have approximately a year from its enactment\u00a0\u2014 the original bill gave it just 90 days \u2014 to sell TikTok to a buyer in a country that the United States does not consider a foreign adversary. If ByteDance, which has ties to the Chinese Communist Party and is subject to its government, refuses to divest itself of TikTok or does not meet the deadline, then the app could be banned from being downloaded or used in the United States.<\/p>\n

\n\tRick Lane<\/strong>, TikTok\u00a0Coalition.org\u00a0leader and child safety advocate, says the TikTok bill \u201cis moving forward very quickly. The language between the House and Senate is so close \u2014 they are millimeters apart, and I think agreements are being made to bring them together. Unless something drastic happens, I don\u2019t see this bill\u2019s momentum slowing down, no matter who\u2019s on the other side. That is why adding it to the foreign aid bill makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt a time when Congress is mired in ideological infighting, particularly among Republicans, the House of Representatives moved with remarkable\u00a0speed to mark up and pass the bill and send it to the Senate. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"TikTok\"<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tTikTok Ban Passes in House as Lawmakers Put Pressure on ByteDance to\u00a0Sell\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\n\tDespite a deluge of calls and messages from TikTok users protesting the legislation, the House passed it, 352 votes to 65, on March 13 \u2014 less than a week after national security and intelligence officials held a classified briefing for an executive session of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. A music industry source familiar with activity on Capitol Hill tells Billboard<\/em> that, before the briefing started, \u201cmembers and staffers devices were taken away, and the committee room\u2019s AV systems and the like were removed.\u201d Following the morning briefing, the committee marked up the bill that afternoon and voted unanimously to advance it to the full House of Representatives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA classified intelligence briefing was also held in the Senate and prompted similar remarks of concern.\u00a0Republican senator from Missouri Eric Schmitt<\/strong> told Axios<\/a> that the Chinese-controlled platform\u2019s \u201cability to spy is shocking.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe don\u2019t know exactly what was briefed,\u201d says the music industry source. \u201cBut what is absolutely crystal clear is that whatever has been presented to Congress members by the intelligence community is clearly driving this. You don\u2019t see \u2014 particularly Congress members \u2014 reacting with that kind of dispatch and unanimity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA \u2018Once-in-a-Lifetime\u2019 Alarm<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is really a once-in-a-lifetime kind of alarm,\u201d the\u00a0source adds. \u201cPeople who have been around the Hill for decades don\u2019t remember there ever being this level of concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAn unclassified 2024 Annual Threat Assessment<\/a> issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in February may offer a glimpse of these security concerns. The assessment reported that \u201cChina is demonstrating a higher degree of sophistication in its influence activity, including experimenting with generative AI. TikTok accounts run by a [People\u2019s Republic of China] propaganda arm reportedly targeted candidates from both political parties during the U.S. midterm election cycle in 2022.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"TikTok\"<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tIs UMG’s TikTok Ban Hurting Its U.S. Streaming Numbers? Here’s What the Evidence\u00a0Shows\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\n\tIn response, a TikTok spokesperson referred Billboard<\/em> to its written response to the ODNI, dated March 15, which asserts that the social media platform \u201cregularly takes action against deceptive behavior, including covert influence networks throughout the world, and has been transparent in reporting them publicly. TikTok has protected our platform through more than 150 elections globally,\u201d the response continues, \u201cand is continuing to work with electoral commissions, experts, and fact-checkers to safeguard our community during this historic election year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to the intelligence briefings, Billboard<\/em> obtained a slide presentation that one Capitol Hill source says has been shown to staffers for over 40 senators.\u00a0The presentation cobbles together previously published articles, analyses and reports about TikTok\u2019s alleged dissemination of disinformation and propaganda to much of the same demographic that uses the app for music discovery. (According to a 2024 Pew Research Center report, 56% of U.S. adults 18 to 34 use the platform and 52% of the users in this age group have posted a video to the platform.) \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2018TikTok Is a News Organization<\/strong>\u2018<\/p>\n

\n\tAs one tech policy expert says, \u201cTikTok is a news organization. Trends are indicating that up to 40% of adults 18-to-29\u00a0will be getting their news from TikTok in 2024. It\u2019s their CNN or Fox News or MSNBC.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the first slides, titled \u201cTikTok Has Rapidly Evolved From an Entertainment to a News Platform, Enormously Expanding Its Influence on The U.S. Population,\u201d includes a graph built from Pew Research Center data that shows 43% of TikTok users regularly got their news from the platform in 2023, nearly double the 22% that did so in 2020. Only X (59%) and Facebook (54%) were higher. And nearly a third of that 43% were adults under 30 years of age.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough music\u2019s role in TikTok\u2019s alleged dispersal of disinformation is not examined in the presentation, the tech policy expert says it\u2019s definitely a factor. A 2023 report released by the rights management startup Pex in February revealed that 85% of TikTok videos contain music, more than YouTube (84%), Instagram (58%) and Facebook (49%), and the tech policy expert says that music played on the platform often functions as an emotional gateway to propaganda.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Market,<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tUniversal\u2019s Music Isn\u2019t on TikTok, But Artists Keep Using It\u00a0Anyway\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cThe power of music is what draws people to social interaction,\u201d the source says. \u201cThey\u2019re taking music that gets people excited and, for instance, following them with horrific videos \u2014 and the interaction of those data points creates this powerful tool to affect policy.\u201d The expert adds that TikTok\u2019s algorithm enables the platform to essentially tailor its approach to each user. \u201cIt\u2019s no longer just one size fits all; the ability now is to take visual cues, music and sound and target each individual with what sets them off \u2014 and they can do that on a massive scale.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe argument in favor of TikTok is that Meta and Alphabet are collecting data from even more people, but they are not based in an adversarial country,\u201d the expert continues. \u201cThere\u2019s another key difference as well. TikTok sends you videos that they think you are interested in no matter what. Most young people want to be influencers. In order to be an influencer on TikTok, you have to follow what\u2019s trending, so your video is blasted to more people. You tag along with feeds. In the policy realm, if they want to influence public policy, your view is going to be whatever direction that feed is going in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA TikTok spokesperson responds: \u201cThere is absolutely no evidence to these assertions. We have clear rules prohibiting deceptive behaviors.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2018They Deserve It\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThe music industry\u2019s view of the proceedings in Washington is mixed. The perspective of artists and songwriters is arguably\u00a0best expressed by David Lowery<\/a>, the artist rights activist and frontman for the bands Cracker <\/a>and Camper Van Beethoven, who also was one of more than 200 creators that, in early April, signed an open letter<\/a> to tech platforms urging them to stop using AI \u201cto infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe rates TikTok pays artists are extremely low, and it has a history \u2014 at least with me \u2014 of using my catalog with no licenses,\u201d Lowery says. \u201cI just checked to make sure and there are plenty of songs that I wrote on TikTok, and I have no idea how they have a license for those songs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs a result, Lowery says that while \u201cI\u2019m kind of neutral as to whether TikTok needs to be sold to a U.S. owner, the bill pleases me in a general way because I feel that they\u2019ve gotten away with abusing artists for so long that they deserve it. I realize the bill doesn\u2019t punish them for doing that,\u201d he continues,\u00a0\u201cbut that\u2019s why a lot of musicians feel they really deserve it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Taylor<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tTaylor Swift Is Back on TikTok. Can Other Artists Do the\u00a0Same?\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\n\tThe consensus among label executives is that TikTok is not going anywhere, but were the app banned in the United States, they wouldn\u2019t spill many tears. In early April, Billboard <\/em>reported <\/a>that two months after UMG pulled its music from TikTok, its market share and chart appearances had not been greatly affected. And though numerous UMG artists have devised workarounds<\/a> to maintain a presence on TikTok, one senior label executive says, \u201cWhen you\u2019re looking at the competitive set for TikTok, you see a migration to YouTube, Instagram and Snap. And those platforms see a real opportunity, so they\u2019re starting to lean in.\u00a0The absence of TikTok would just\u00a0mean migration to other platforms and, frankly, because those platforms monetize better, even if you lose a significant chunk of your audience, you\u2019re still going to make more money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t$8.7 Million For Lobbyists<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCapitol Hill sources say ByteDance has enlisted a small army of lobbyists\u00a0to keep TikTok on U.S. mobile devices. In 2023, ByteDance spent $8.7 million on lobbyists, according to the nonprofit government transparency organization OpenSecrets. That\u2019s almost double the $4.9 million it dropped in 2022, although a TikTok spokesperson attributes the year-to-year increase to \u201ca unique, one-time higher expenditure in the third quarter of 2023 that reflects the vesting of Restricted Stock Units related to the launch of our U.S. buyback program.\u201d (Data for 2024 lobbyist expenditures were not available at publication time.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThat 2023 outlay was the fourth-highest amount spent on lobbyists by a tech company that year, behind Meta ($19.3 million); Amazon.com (nearly $19.3 million) and Alphabet (almost $12.4 million). In 2019, ByteDance spent less than $1 million on lobbyists.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLobbyists hired by ByteDance include Rosemary Gutierrez<\/strong>, the former deputy chief of staff for Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell <\/strong>of Washington, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee \u2014 which will review the TikTok\u00a0legislation before a floor vote is taken \u2014 and Kellyanne Conway<\/strong>, former senior counselor to President Donald Trump<\/strong>. Conway is reportedly considering joining Trump\u2019s reelection campaign, but last month, Politico <\/a><\/em>reported that she was working for the conservative Club for Growth to lobby on TikTok\u2019s behalf. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the Club for Growth\u2019s biggest donors is billionaire Jeffrey Yass<\/strong>, who owns 15% of ByteDance, which is reportedly worth roughly $40 billion. Yass\u2019 trading firm, Susquehanna International Group, is also the largest institutional shareholder \u2014 2% \u2014 of Digital World Acquisition Corporation, which merged with Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of the former president\u2019s Truth Social app, and took it public in late March. (The New York Times <\/em>reported that it\u2019s unclear if Susquehanna still owned the shares at the time of the IPO.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Ariana<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tHits by Ariana Grande, Beyonce & More Remain on TikTok Despite UMG Ban \u2014 And Songwriters Feel\u2026\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\n\tGiven Yass\u2019 support of Trump, it\u2019s not shocking that, after attempting to ban TikTok during his time in office, Trump has said on social media and in interviews that though he still considers TikTok a national security risk, he has reconsidered<\/a> banning the platform.<\/a> One reason he has cited is that such a move would benefit\u00a0Meta and its social media app Facebook. Trump has made no secret of his enmity for Meta\u2019s chairman\/CEO Mark Zuckerberg<\/strong> and Facebook, which banned him in 2021. (Trump was reinstated in 2023.)\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Taylor Factor<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThe news last week that Taylor Swift<\/a> had restored<\/a> her Taylor\u2019s Version songs to TikTok in the run-up to the April 19 release of her new album The Tortured Poets Department <\/em>led to speculation that the superstar singer-songwriter\u00a0\u2014 who has often spoken out for artists\u2019 rights \u2014 could be weaponized by TikTok in its standoff with UMG. In Washington, however, TikTok Coalition leader Lane says, \u201cTaylor Swift being or not being on TikTok has never come up in any meeting I\u2019ve been in on Capitol Hill.\u201d He sees Swift\u2019s return to the app as \u201ca business decision\u201d that\u2019s no different than President Biden\u2019s and Congress members\u2019 presence on the app, or even UMG\u2019s continued talks with TikTok. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t diminish the strong bipartisan\/bicameral support within Congress and the White House that TikTok is a clear and present danger to the U.S. national security and needs to be divested from ByteDance,\u201d he says. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump\u2019s sway over the GOP has some on Capitol Hill predicting that passage of the TikTok National Security bill in concert with the foreign aid package is not a slam dunk. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to say how it\u2019s going to play on the Republican side,\u201d says the music industry source familiar with the Capitol Hill proceedings. \u201cBecause while they\u2019re feeling pressure from the former President on one hand to oppose the bill, they are also feeling heat from their constituents to support it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TikTok has returned to the bargaining table with Universal Music Group (UMG), but a fast-tracked Congressional bill that could result in the platform being sold, or, as a last result, banned in the United States may reach President Joe Biden\u2019s desk before those negotiations are finished. \u00a0 A source familiar with the talks says Bytedance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}