Beyoncé‘s “Cuff It” vanished from TikTok on Tuesday (Feb. 27), the latest casualty of the platform’s stand-off with Universal Music Group (UMG).
“Cuff It” is not alone. Harry Styles‘ recordings are no longer available, SZA‘s recordings are gone, except for her new single “Saturn,” and most of Bad Bunny’s music is missing as well — even though none of these artists are signed to UMG labels.
When negotiations between UMG and TikTok fell apart at the end of January, official recordings made by UMG artists like Taylor Swift and Drake swiftly disappeared from the platform. After a grace period, songs that were penned in part by UMPG’s songwriters are now suffering the same fate.
“Cuff It” is one of many Beyoncé songs that features a contribution from a songwriter signed to Universal Music Publishing Group — in this case, Raphael Saadiq. UMPG’s roster also includes artists Styles, Rosalía, SZA, Bad Bunny and Steve Lacy for their songwriting credits. In the U.S., UMPG touches 20% to 30% of the music on TikTok, according to a rep for the platform. The rep declined to comment further.
UMPG also declined to comment for this story. In a letter to songwriters earlier this month, the publisher said, “TikTok insists on paying our songwriters at a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social media platforms pay — and without any material increase from our prior agreement… This is unacceptable.”
Tension between the music industry and TikTok has been growing for years. Many executives still believe it is the most effective platform for marketing music, even if it is maddeningly hard to influence.
At the same time, many around the music industry argue that TikTok does not pay enough to use the music that helped it become such a wildly popular app. (The music-tech company Pex found that 85% of TikTok videos incorporate music.) Late in 2022, UMG CEO Lucian Grainge noted that a value gap was “forming fast in the new iterations of short-form video.”
In a statement to Billboard at that time, TikTok global head of music Ole Obermann emphasized that the platform was not a music streaming service: “Our community comes to TikTok to watch videos, not to listen to full-length tracks.” He added, “We’re proud of the partnerships we are building with the industry and artists, and we are confident that we are enhancing musical engagement. That translates directly to more financial and creative opportunities for music creators.”
The simmering tension boiled over in late January. In an open letter, UMG announced that its negotiations with TikTok had fallen apart. “TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay,” UMG wrote. The record company accused TikTok of trying to “intimidate us into conceding to a bad deal that undervalues music and shortchanges artists and songwriters as well as their fans.”
TikTok responded by saying that UMG was pushing a “false narrative.” It’s “sad and disappointing, that [UMG] has put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters,” TikTok continued.
