TikTok has been removing all recordings written or co-written by songwriters signed to Universal Music Publishing Group, following on from its takedowns of UMG recordings. But now there’s a new deadline looming that’s going to be a headache for the company.
The US National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) has announced that its TikTok licensing deal expires on 30 April, and that “we do not anticipate that there will be an option to renew or extend the current NMPA licenses or participate in a new license with TikTok through NMPA”.
It is encouraging its members to strike their own direct deals with TikTok, and noting that for those who do not its lawyers are available to “discuss enforcement options”.
(And if there’s one thing we know about the NMPA, it’s that it is not scared in the slightest of suing tech platforms if it thinks they’re a hotbed of unlicensed music…)
Come 30 April, TikTok may be forced to remove another swathe of recordings written or co-written by songwriters signed to NMPA members.
NMPA boss David Israelite talked to Music Ally about TikTok in an interview earlier this week.
“It does feel like Groundhog Day,” said Israelite, in reference to TikTok’s dispute with UMG “What YouTube and many other social media-type platforms discovered over time was that music was extremely important to their business model and, as their business model changes, oftentimes they need the music industry to be their partner
“I would hope that TikTok comes to the realisation of just how important music is to the platform. But maybe it needs to play out in this way.”
In separate news, TikTok is rolling its ‘Add to Music App’ feature out in Indonesia and Brazil. That’s significant, because these are two of the markets where its TikTok Music streaming service is available.
Users there will thus be able to add songs they discover on TikTok to their TikTok Music libraries – along with existing partners Apple Music, Amazon Music and Spotify.
Finally – and this may not be entirely helpful for TikTok’s licensing negotiations – the Wall Street Journal has reported that its parent company ByteDance’s Q3 2023 revenues were up 43% to $30.9bn.
That’s not far short of Meta’s $34bn that quarter, with UMG having claimed that TikTok wants to pay far less for music than the latter company.
