On February 1, music by Universal Music Group (UMG) artists was pulled from TikTok following an agreement between the two companies that expired. Today UMG announced that they have successfully signed a new agreement with TikTok that will allow their artists' music to be used again.
TikTok agreed to pay artists better, provide better promotion opportunities and protect music from being used by generative AI. UMG said they will return their artists' music to TikTok as soon as possible but did not share when that would happen.
Since February 1, TikTok videos with music by UMG artists have been muted. Video owners are given the option to replace the background music with other music. Among the prominent artists under UMG are Siti Nurhaliza, Joe Flizzow, P Ramlee, Ella, Dewa 19, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, SZA, Drake, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Adele, and Coldplay. Only Taylor Swift was given a special release by UMG to promote her new album two weeks ago on TikTok.